Troubles in the Life of a Band Geek
by Marchingbandchica24
Summary: A senior girl in marching band struggles through her last year of high school, wondering what exactly she wants out of her life, and has to figure out all the complications of romance.
1. Chapter 1

"1st place, bitches!" Zoe screamed, getting on the bus. Her fellow band geeks cheered back at her, and she slammed herself down into a seat next to one of her best friends Laura. 

"Well, you're very excited…" Kristy, another one of her best friends, said.

"What do you expect? It's our 1st competition of senior year and my 18th birthday, and we just won 1st place out of 3 when we usually don't have any competition at these things!" Zoe said, taking her messy bun out and swinging her long red hair down her back.

Kristy laughed. "You have a point…"

Laura turned to them. "Plus, it's your first competition as section leader."

"Yes, exactly," Zoe replied, brushing through her hair with her slender fingers. "So, you guys are coming tonight, right?" she asked her friends.

"Of course! It's your 18th birthday party! Why wouldn't we?" Laura said.

"True…" Zoe looked forward just as Meg got on the bus. "Oh yay, Meg's back…" she said in one of the most sarcastic voices she could do.

"Thanks for waiting, you guys," Meg yelled, sitting down right in front of Zoe and Laura. "I came out of the bathroom and look, and all of you are gone!"

"Sorry, Meg," Laura said. "We didn't know where you went and we thought you had already left."

"How could you forget about me?" Meg screamed back at her.

Zoe just rolled her eyes. _I wonder…_ she thought to herself.

At that moment, Steven, one of the section leaders of the drumline, got on the bus.

Meg giggled. "Hee hee… Hi…" she said as he passed her.

He looked at her and monotonously replied "Hi…"

"Nice solo, Sans," Zoe said to him, holding out her hand for a high five.

"You too, Poms." He smiled and slapped her hand. At that, she could feel death rays being projected onto her by Meg.

"Why do you two always call each other by abbreviated last names?" Kristy asked Zoe.

"I don't know. We just don't like using first names, and who'd want to call someone Sanseroni or Pominger?" Zoe replied, trying to ignore the looks she was getting from Meg.

Laura laughed. "I love his last name… It's the best… Actually, I just love his name all together. Steven Sanersoni."

"You having fun with that?" Lizzy said, sitting down in the seat with Kristy. Lizzy's curly blonde hair was everywhere and looked like it had just been stuck under a hot helmet for the past hour.

"Yes, in fact, I am!" Laura smiled. "Zoe, does my hair look alright?" she asked her.

"Yea, you just have some random hairs everywhere from being sweaty," Zoe replied. Zoe loved Laura's hair. It was such a warm chestnut color, and it was so incredibly soft.

"Zoe, you made my braided bun too tight again…" Meg complained, trying to pull the attention back onto her. She pulled her braids out, flicking her ratty black hair in Zoe's face.

"Sorry," Zoe said, flicking Meg's hair out of her face. "If you don't like it, you can find someone else." _Plus, your hair is disgusting to touch…_

Meg sighed. "Isn't Stevey so amazingly sexy?" she said, staring at the back of the bus with her beady brown eyes. "I'd love to have sex with him… I bet he's the longest one in marching band."

"That's perverted," Kristy bluntly said. "God would not appreciate it."

"I'm sure God would appreciate me being happy with one of the hottest guys in marching band," she replied. "But seriously, he is so sexy… Don't you think so, Zoe?"

"Naw, not really," Zoe replied, rummaging through her bag.

"Really now? You guys talk all the time!" Meg said, pushing her way into the seat with Zoe and Laura.

"Yea, so? We talk."

"Exactly. You guys have to have a connection if you talk all the time!" Meg said, shoving her boobs into Zoe's personal space.

"Meg, why are you in the seat? Get back in your own!" Laura said, pushing on Zoe to shove Meg out, which worked, since she fell out onto her ass.

Meg pouted her way back into the seat in front of them, and repeated herself. "You guys talk! You have a connection!"

"No, Meg, we don't. Unlike yourself, I know that just because you are friends with a guy doesn't mean that he likes you and wants to bang you."

With that, Meg turned around, but not without giving Zoe an evil glare first.

"Anybody want water?" Mrs. Kimmling said, getting onto the bus holding up water bottles.

Lizzy stood up. "You guys want any?"

"Sure," Zoe, Laura, and Kristy all replied, and Lizzy went up to get four water bottles from her mom.

Steven came up from the back, and asked Kristy if he could just sit on the end of her seat real quick. "Hey Zoe, what time should I be at your house tonight?" he asked Zoe.

"Well, I told everyone else 10, so I guess you can get there around then too," she smiled. At this moment, Lizzy came back with the water bottles.

"Excuse me, Steven, but you have stolen my seat!" she said, laughing at the way she had just said that.

Steven laughed too. "Of course, madam. Here is your seat back." He turned to Zoe. "You're going to love your present." And with that, he turned and walked back to his seat.

Meg turned around. "You totally just flirted with him! YOU LIKE HIM! THERE'S A CONNECTION!"

"NO THERE'S NOT!" Zoe screamed back at her. "Just turn back around and do whatever the hell you were just doing. And stop ruining my birthday." By this comment, Zoe was surprised she hadn't sent Meg crying to her mom standing outside. Instead Meg just turned around and pushed her earphones into her ears.

Zoe turned to look at Laura, who was grinning and had her hand out for a high five. "That was awesome!" Laura whispered to her.

All Zoe did was laugh.

The next hour was full of Zoe, Kristy, Laura, and Lizzy all belting out songs and laughing at their terrible singing. As the buses turned into the school parking lot, the girls finished singing "Life is a Highway" and pushed their way off.

"Laura, you're coming with me, right?" Zoe asked her as she grabbed her mellophone case from off the bus.

"Yupp," Laura said trying to stuff her flute case into her bag. "I gotta get something from inside, so I'll just meet you at the car, alright?"

"Sure," Zoe said, "I'll just be packing up the car."

As Laura went into the school, Zoe made her way over to her blue Malibu that her parents had given to her when her mom got a new car. She placed her case down on the ground, popped the trunk, and threw all her things into it. Laura came within a few seconds, and stuck her things in the trunk with Zoe's and shut it. Zoe and Laura got into the car, and Zoe started it. Just as she was about to pull out of the spot, Chris came running up to her with Devin, his brother.

"Hey Zoe, we were wondering if you could give us a ride to your house…"

"Yea, just throw your stuff in the trunk," she said, popping the trunk for them. Chris was in her section, and Devin was in the trombones, so she figured her trunk would be pretty full with all their things. They got into the car, and she pulled out of her parking spot, being careful not to hit anyone. Just as she went by the buses, Meg ran out in front of her. She slammed on the brakes and gave Meg a look.

"Zoe! You could've killed me!" Meg said, coming to her window. She looked in the back. "Oh, hey Chris… hey Devin…" she giggled. "Hey Zoe, what was Stevey talking about on the bus?"

"You mean when he asked me the time?" Zoe asked.

"Yea. That," Meg said, giving her a look.

"Oh, he's just coming over with a few other people."

"Oh, well, why wasn't I invited?"

"Well, are you a section leader?"

"No…"

"Well, that's who's invited."

"Well… Chris isn't a section leader!" Meg said, pointing to him in the back.

"He's my second-hand man. He's like a section leader. Now excuse me, I have to go." And with that, Zoe looked to see if anyone was there, and stepped on the gas.

"Nice job, Zoe," Chris laughed from the back seat.

"Yea, I know. She's been pissing me off a lot lately…" Zoe laughed as she drove off. "Boy, I hope she doesn't show up…" she laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

They got to Zoe's house within 10 minutes, and she parked in her turn-around.

"If you want, you can just keep your stuff in the trunk, but here, if you want something…" she said as she popped the trunk. She then led them up her driveway to her house, where her border collie named Christine greeted them.

"Your dog is so adorable!" Laura said, petting Christine on the head. "Yes you are," she said to the dog.

Zoe opened the door and let the three of her friends in, followed by the dog.

"What do you want us to do with your presents?" Devin asked.

"Eh, just put them on that table over there," Zoe said. "We'll tell everyone else to put them there too."

"Hey guys!" Mrs. Pominger said, carrying a tray of cookies into the room.

"Hi Mrs. Pominger," the three said in unison.

"How was the competition?"

"We got 1st place!" Zoe said, placing her keys on a hook on the wall. "I'll be right back; I have to go change and do my hair. Hey, do you guys want to help my mom set up for the party?"

"Sure," they said, and Zoe went upstairs to her room.

In fifteen minutes, she came down in a pretty blue halter and a pair of jeweled jeans. She had brushed her wavy hair out so that her red hair hung down, and she smiled.

"Oh, you look so pretty!" her mom said. "Mark, come here!" she yelled into the other room. "Come take a picture of your daughter!"

"No, Mom, please…"

"No no! I want a picture! Get with your friends!" Zoe's mom said as her father walked into the room with his digital camera. "All of you sit on the couch."

"What? Why?"

"Because, it'll look cute. Trust me."

The four seniors sat down on the leather couch, Devin and Laura on the ends with Zoe and Chris in the middle. They all huddled together and smiled as the flash blinded them.

"Ok, now stand up and go by the fireplace, and put your arms around each other."

Again, they did the same order.

"Now a funny one!"

At that, Chris bent down in front of Zoe. "Get on my back," he said. Zoe did so, and he stood up quickly. Laura and Devin stood on Chris's sides, and they all made funny faces.

"Aw, that was a cute one!" Zoe's mom exclaimed. "So, how do you like the house for the party?" she asked.

"It looks awesome, Mom. Really!"

Zoe's mom hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Oh, anything for my baby girl!"

Zoe blushed and pulled away. "Thanks, Mom…"

Mrs. Pominger scurried off into the kitchen and the four of them sat down on the couch, waiting for the first guest to arrive.

"15 more minutes…" Chris said. "Are you ready to be officially 18?"

"Of course! I can't wait!" Zoe laughed. "Tattoos, cigs, porn… You know, all the good stuff is finally legal."

The four of them laughed as the doorbell rang. Zoe hurried to the door to find that Kristy and Lizzy were the first ones there.

"Hey! Long time no see!" Zoe said to them.

They laughed.

"Happy birthday!" Lizzy said, handing Zoe her present.

"Aw thanks!"

"Yea, happy birthday!" Kristy said, handing her present to Zoe too.

"You guys can just go into the living room; I drove Laura, Chris, and Devin here, so they're all sitting in there." She followed her friends into the room and placed her presents on the table.

Within 20 minutes, all the guests had arrived. By 10:05, Zoe's living room was filled with many of her friends: Kristy, Laura, Lizzy, Chris, Devin, Steven, Mike, Jess, Isabelle, Blaire, Mary, Kelsey, and Paige. All of them had placed their presents on the table except for Steven, but Zoe didn't want to ask him on the spot where his present was, so she just ignored it. Zoe put some dance music on, and the 14 seniors all danced for a half-hour straight. At one point, Chris came up behind Zoe, grabbed her hips, and pulled her back until she was pretty sure she could feel a bulge in her butt. She was so used to the feeling, though, since they were such good friends and always danced like that, that she didn't mind it one bit. They danced like that for a song, and then she pulled away to go over to the snacks.

Zoe was shoving up some chips into her mouth when Steven came up to her.

"Hey Poms…" he said, tapping her shoulder.

"Yea?" she said, turning around wiping her mouth. "What's up, Sans?"

"Well, I was wondering, if you don't mind, could I give you your present in private?"

"Sure," she said, placing her plate down. "Let's go up in my room." She led him up to her room, having no idea what he possibly was afraid of giving to her in person. She sat down on her bed and patted it for him to sit down. "What's up?"

"Close your eyes," he said.

She did so.

"Stick your hand out."

She did so, and she felt an envelope being placed into her hand.

"Ok, open them, and open the envelope."

She opened her eyes and looked at the envelope. She took the envelope and carefully ripped it open. She looked in and gasped.

"Sans, you did not…"

"Pull it out," Steven smiled at her.

At this point she had tears in her eyes. "Oh, Steven, you shouldn't have!"

"Yes I should've, hence why I did. They're 2 tickets to a Sabres game against the Bruins. And they're right behind the Sabres bench."

She hugged him. "This is amazing… Wait, what's this?" She pulled something else out. "No…"

"Yes…"

"You did not… How in the world did you get 2 press passes?"

"I have my ways," he said, smiling again.

She gave him a huge hug. "I love this, Sans. It's so fucking amazing!" She hugged him again, this time kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you so much!"

She put the tickets on her dresser and they went back downstairs.

"There you are…" Isabelle said. "We were getting worried about you two!"

"No, we're good. He was just giving me my present."

"Oooo…" Blaire chimed in.

"No, it wasn't anything like that. If you really want to know, it was a pair of tickets to a Sabres game and a pair of press passes."

At that, everyone's jaw dropped except for Zoe's and Steven's.

"Well, I've known her for 4 years… I just thought it'd be nice."

"I've known her for 7 years and I've never gotten her something that big!" Kara said.

"Ok guys, stop talking like I'm not here. You can argue about this later," Zoe laughed.

"CAKE TIME!" Zoe's mom said, carrying in a large cake with the Buffalo Sabres logo on it and writing that said, "Happy 18th Birthday, Zoe!" and had 19 candles on it; 18 for her age, and 1 for good luck.

"Belle, you wanna turn off the lights?" her mom asked Isabelle.

"Sure!" she said, clicking them off, and everyone began to sing.

"Make a really good wish!" Zoe's mom said, poised with a camera ready to snap a picture.

"Yea," Blaire said. "Wish for some awesome porn!" This made everyone laugh, except for Zoe's parents, who just made disapproving looks. Zoe smiled and blew the candles out, not missing one.

"Nice blow," Chris said, nudging Zoe. Everyone laughed at that too, though the parents didn't quite get it. Zoe pushed the knife into the cake, and Isabelle pulled it out, since her birthday was next, and they all plunged into the cake.

As Zoe polished off her piece, she shouted, "PRESENT TIME!" and went over to the couch closest to the table of gifts. As her friends piled around her, each grabbing their present, she became very anxious as to what they had all gotten for her.

"I can't wait, you guys! I love presents!" 


	3. Chapter 3

By the time presents were over, it was already 11 o'clock, and they all headed out into Zoe's backyard for a bon fire. They all sat in a circle around the fire, roasting marshmallows and talking about all their plans for senior year.

"My main goal for senior year," Chris said, "is to get laid."

They all laughed at this.

"What? I'm serious! I don't want to go to college a virgin! That's just idiotic."

"My main goal," Blaire said, "is to meet the Sabres. God, I love them…"

"That's my goal too," Zoe added. "And, I'm going to! I'M SO EXCITED!" She looked over at Steven when she said this, and saw he had a huge smile on his face. "Seriously, though, my goal is to be experienced at least a little before I go to college. Like, not necessarily sex, but just SOMETHING."

"Yea, I think that's all…" said Lizzy.

"No, not me!" Kristy objected.

"Well, no, not you," Isabelle said. "You're too religious. You'd never do anything until you're married," she laughed.

"Exactly."

"Me too," added Steven. "Even though I'm not Christian, I still don't think you should have sex before you get married. It's just not right."

"Eh, you guys are too simple," Chris said. "I need adventure!"

As they sat there, one-by-one, they laid down to look at the sky.

"Hey Zoe?" Chris said after a few minutes.

"Yea?"

"Can I talk to you in private?"

"Sure," she said, standing up. They walked far away from the fire to her old play set. "What's up?"

"Well, I think it's about time I told you something. I've liked you since sophomore year, and I've never found the courage to tell you this. I know I kept saying I didn't like you, but I just couldn't find the right moment to tell you."

"Oh, Chris, I knew you liked me. I'm not stupid."

"You did? Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know, I was waiting for you to say it, just incase my judging was off."

"Well, would you like to go out with me sometime?"

"Chris, I don't know how to say this… I'd like to go out, but only as friends. I don't know if I'm ready for an intimate relationship with you."

"Will this change your mind?" he said. He put one hand up against a post of the set, and caressed her face with the other hand. He tilted her chin a little upward, and leaned forward, his lips moving closer to hers. He felt her soft fleshy lips as he pressed his into hers. He lightly sucked on her bottom lip, and she put her hands on his waste, pulling his body towards her. He took his hand off her chin and put it on her waist, slipping his hand under her shirt, feeling the curve of her waist. He turned his head, and forced her lips apart with his as he slid his tongue in. He explored her mouth with his tongue, as she did in return. Suddenly, though, she pulled away.

"Chris, I don't know… That was amazing, I'm not gonna lie, but I don't know if I'm ready to be 'official' with you."

"Well, just think about it, ok?"

"I will," and with that, she left back for the campfire, him following a few steps behind.

"What was that all about?" Laura asked.

"Oh, nothing. It was just something about the section."

"That needed to be discussed in private?"

"Yes, it was personal melly business."

"Ok, whatever you say…"

The kids all sat out by the fire until it was 1 o'clock, when they all decided it was time to get going. As everyone left, Laura, Kristy, Belle, Blaire, and Lizzy got their sleepover things from their cars and brought them all in. as they did so, Chris and Devin came up to Zoe.

"Hey, Zoe, is there any chance you could give us a ride home? We can't get a hold of either of our parents," Devin asked.

"Yea, sure. Lemme just get my keys and wallet." She found her things right where she left them and yelled up to her mom. "Ma, I'm taking Chris and Devin home. I'll be back in about a half-hour."

"Alright! Drive safely!" Mrs. Pominger screamed back at her.

As the three got into Zoe's car, Chris sat in the front with Zoe.

"Your mom seems really cheery today… She usually isn't this cheery, is she?"

"No, I don't know what's wrong with her. I think she might be a little tipsy," Zoe said, pulling out of her driveway onto the dark street. Chris turned on the radio to find that one of the "melly theme songs" was on the radio, "Boom boom boom boom" by the Vega Boys. As Zoe and Chris belted out the song, Devin just sat in the backseat laughing at how ridiculous they were.

"You guys are crazy," he said, once the song was over.

"Hey! This song is special to the mellies! We've been singing it for years!" Zoe yelled, looking at him in her rear-view mirror. All Devin did was laugh a little more.

About 20 minutes later, they were at their house, and they both got out of the car. Chris followed Devin up his steps, but quickly turned around before he went in. He came up to the car and opened his door.

"I forgot something," he said, leaning into the seat. As he did so, he kissed Zoe on the cheek. "Happy birthday! I'll see you on Monday. Well, technically, tomorrow."

"See ya…" Zoe said as he shut the door and walked up to his front door. As he got in, he turned around and waved, she waved back, and then pulled out of his driveway. The ride back was a little awkward, since she had that tingling sensation on her cheek the entire time. She didn't usually get that tingling sensation around him, but for some reason, this was just different. It would not go away, and she didn't understand why. She didn't like him, yet why was she getting all these weird feelings when she was around him tonight? It made no sense to her.

As she arrived back to her house, she parked her car in the turn-around and locked it as she walked up her driveway. She entered her house to find all her friends in their pajamas with a huge box wrapped in paper for her.

"We have one last present for you," Blaire said. "But first, you need to put on your pjs." As Blaire said this, Lizzy produced Zoe's pajamas, and Zoe put them on right there in front of them, not caring one bit. When she finished changing, she threw her clothes down her basement stairs and sat down in the hole in the circle that they had made for her.

"I'm kind of afraid to open this…" Zoe said, as Isabelle passed her the gift.

"Don't be, you'll love it," Laura said, smiling at her.

The present was wrapped in the shiniest silver wrapping paper she had ever seen, and had a humongous bow tied around it. The box was about as long as a boogie board, as "tall" as a shoebox, and as wide as 2 textbooks stacked on top of each other. Everyone watched as she slowly opened the box.

"Now, don't take your time," Kristy said. "We don't want you cherishing every moment of it all."

Zoe ripped open the shinny paper, and opened the box, only to scream and cry when she saw what was in it. All her friends smiled as she pulled out the magnificent blue dress she had been looking at all summer long in the dress shop in the mall. It was a strapless, floor length, light blue dress with a large white ribbon running across right under the breast that tied in a large bow in the back. It had a layer of see-through "sparkliness" over the blue, so it was just shinny enough to catch someone's attention but not steal it all away.

"Oh my God, you guys are amazing…" Zoe couldn't seem to control herself.

"That's not all," Lizzy said, pulling out another box, this one much smaller, almost like a jewelry box. Zoe opened this to find a matching garter to go with her new blue dress.

"You guys just bought me Prom?" Zoe smiled/cried/laughed all at the same time.

"Yes, they did," her mother said, coming in carrying one last gift. "And I have one last thing to give you," she said, handing Zoe another jewelry box.

Zoe opened it and saw a pair of long blue earrings and a necklace that matched her dress perfectly, yet looked like it was almost 100 years old.

"Mom, where'd you get these?"

"They were your grandmother's. When she was in the nursing home for those few weeks, I told her that you kept talking about how you wanted a blue dress for Prom, and she told me that if we found a blue to match this jewelry, she wanted me to give them to you."

"But that was two years ago… How'd you even remember that?"

"She told me where they were and that day, I went to her house and found them and put them in my drawer for safe keeping. Then, a few weeks ago, Belle called me up and told me that they all were going to chip in and buy you this dress that you've been longing for for months, and I went to the store to check it out and it matched perfectly. So, I wrapped them up, and hid them until tonight."

By now, Zoe was in tears of happiness and was hugging everyone.

"Thank you so much, Mom," she said, hugging her last. "You are amazing."

After this little surprise, the girls all got into their sleeping bags and talked until 5 AM, when almost none of them could even think of any words.


	4. Chapter 4

The 6 girls were woken up at 10 by Christine attacking them all with kisses and such.

"Breakfast time!" Zoe's mother said, walking into the room filled with sleeping teenage girls. At this time, Laura was getting slobbered with kisses and everyone was laughing at her.

"Ok Christine," Zoe said, pulling her off of Laura, "time for you to get out of here." She pushed her little dog butt out, and Christine diligently followed Mrs. Pominger into the kitchen.

By noon, everyone had left except for Belle and Blaire, whom Zoe had offered to drive home. Zoe helped them to pack their bags in the trunk of her car, and then they were off. As they drove, they blasted the radio and sang as loudly as they could to any song that came on, not caring who heard them. Zoe dropped off Blaire first, then took the back roads to Belle's.

"So, did you enjoy your birthday?" Belle asked as they drove.

"Yea, it was awesome. Thank you so much again for everything."

"Oh, no problem."

As she pulled into Belle's driveway, Zoe stole a quick glance down her street to where Chris lived, remembering that moment in her car last night. Doing this caused her cheek to tingle again, and she tried not to show it to her best friend.

"Do you think you can manage it?" Zoe asked, turning to Belle.

"Yupp, I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Yupp! Bye!" Zoe screamed as she pulled out of her driveway and out onto the street, back to her house.

As she sat at a stoplight about half way home, her cell went off, playing her favorite song, "Kiwi" by Maroon 5. She picked up the phone to see whom it was, and was surprised when it was Chris.

"Hello?" she said, wondering why the hell he was calling her.

"Hey, it's Chris."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing much, yourself?"

"Uh, nothing much. Can you hold on a second? I gotta pull over… Ok, I'm over. Hey."

"Hey, I know this may be random, but do you wanna hang out today? Or are you busy driving around with Isabelle or something?"

"No, I'm free. Uh, why don't I just call my mom and see if she needs me, and I'll call you right back, ok?"

"Yea, that's fine. Talk to you in a bit."

"Yupp, bye."

She dialed her home and her mom picked up.

"Hey Mom. Chris just called and wanted to know if I wanted to hang out. Is that alright?"

"Yea, that's perfectly fine. Just remember you have to be home by 4:30 for our family birthday dinner."

"Ok, will do. Bye, Mom."

She dialed Chris.

"Hey, Chris?"

"Yea?"

"I'll be over in a few minutes, ok? I'm just at the stoplight by the school."

"Ok, see you in a few."

Zoe closed her phone and checked to see if anyone was coming, then made a U-turn. _Why the hell does Chris want to hang out with me?_ Zoe thought to herself. _Better yet, why the hell does he even like me? It's just weird…_

She arrived to his house in less than 10 minutes, and Chris got into her car.

"Let's go to that abandoned parking lot by that old supermarket," he said.

"Ok… but why?"

"I don't know, I just want to talk to you… out of my house…"

"Alrighty then." She pulled out of his driveway and drove the 20-minute drive to the rundown shopping plaza that had only 1 store left that no one in his or her right mind went to, and parked her car in a parking spot.

"So, what's up?" she asked him, switching the radio on.

"Can we sit in the back?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, and climbed into the back of her car.

As he climbed back, he backed her into the corner of her back seat and kissed her. At first, she wanted to resist, but then decided why not? He had just kissed her last night, what was the harm? As he began to slide his hands underneath her shirt just as before, she put her hands on his waste and slid her thumbs under his waste band. He must've noticed earlier that she was wearing a button-down shirt, since he undid the first button and slid his hand across her soft chest. Zoe pulled away slightly.

"Chris…" she tried to say, although he wasn't giving her much of a chance. "I have," he kissed her, "a question."

"Yes?" he said, kissing her again.

"Last night," another kiss, "I may have been," and another, "a little out," another, "of it." She stopped kissing him, and looked deep into his brownish-green eyes. "Do you wanna hang out sometime? I mean, look at us. We're practically half-way to sex already in the back seat of my car, we should just hang out more…"

"I'd love to hang out with you more," he said, caressing her face. He couldn't hold back from kissing her any longer, and plunged his lips back down into hers. She immediately forced his lips apart and slipped her tongue in, feeling the inside of his mouth again just as she had done yesterday. She again put her hands on his waist, but this time, she slipped them to his belt buckle, and began to undo it.

He pulled away, and said, "What are you doing?"

She gazed up into his eyes again. "I don' know… It just felt right."

He got off of her and lay down on the other side.

"You should be on top."

She then mounted him and began to kiss him, slipping her hands underneath his shirt. As she did so, he unbuttoned another one of her buttons and began to kiss her on the neck and the chest. When he had realized that she had her hands underneath his shirt, he let her slide his shirt off, revealing his bare chest. She pulled away, looked at his chest, and then started tracing the scar on it.

"I love this…" she said as she drew the line lightly with her fingers. She began to kiss his chest as he unbuttoned more buttons on her shirt until they were all undone, and he slid it right off of her. He then grabbed her sides and pulled her up to meet his mouth, where they both let each other explore their bodies with their hands.

After about 20 minutes, she leaned back on her knees and he looked up at her.

"That was more amazing than I thought it was going to be, seriously."

"Eh, I have my hidden talents."

As he sat up, he put his arm around her bare shoulders. He took her chin, turned it towards him, and kissed her so lightly, yet so passionately; she absolutely loved it. For the next half an hour, they sat there, talking about their lives, acting as if what they had just did was something regular people do during a random conversation. When it was about 2 o'clock, they decided to get going. Putting their shirts on, both of them got into the front part of her car. They drove home, still talking about life, and as she pulled into the driveway, Chris turned to her.

"You are amazing, you seriously have no idea."

She blushed. "Thanks…"

He kissed her lightly on the lips, and opened the door, closing it, and leaving her alone in her car to watch him walk up to his front door and walk in.

She pulled out of the driveway, feeling the same exact tingle as she did last night, still confused about everything that had just happened. How was she ever going to know?


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, school was of course as boring as ever. Band brightened up Zoe's day, though, when she got to play her favorite song, "Fate of the Gods." She loved it, since it had 3 amazing French horn solos, and she got to play them all, since no one else in her section wanted to play them.

After band, Steven came up to Zoe.

"Would you mind if I walked with you to class?" he asked her.

"No, I wanted to talk to you anyway about the game."

"Oh yea. The game's Wednesday night. So, how about I pick you up at 4, and we can go out for dinner downtown, and then go to the game?"

"Yea, that's fine with me."

"Great! I'm so excited for this! It's going to be awesome!"

"Yea, it really is. Well, here's my room. I'll see you later, Sans!"

"Yupp, see ya!"

Zoe hung back in the door and watched as he walked away. She couldn't wait to go to the game and meet the Sabres. It was going to be such an amazing time, not to mention that it was happening with one of her best friends.

At the end of the day, Zoe, as always, headed down to the band room to pick up her folder. Surprisingly, Meg was in the band room with Steven, who didn't look very happy. As she walked to her locker she "overheard" what Meg was saying to him.

"So, Stevey, I liked your solo in band today… It was awesome." She giggled.

"Uh, thanks…" he said.

"Hey, do you want to go see a movie this Friday?" she asked him.

Zoe tried not to laugh, only causing her to cough.

"Well, maybe. I'll have to check my schedule."

"Ok, I hope you can! I'll see you later, Stevey!" and with this, she left.

Steven must've seen Zoe come in, since he walked over to her.

"Why does she call me Stevey?" he asked her.

"I don't know. But she's like obsessed with you. You should've heard her on the bus the other night."

"Oh, I know. I think everyone knows about it. A few of my friends have caught her taking pictures of me on her phone during rehearsals when they're just working with drumline."

"Yea, I've seen her doing that too. So, do you want a ride?"

"Yea, that'd be great! Thanks!"

She locked her French horn locker, slid her folder underneath the rest of her books, and made her way out the door, Steven following at her heels.

"So, this Sabres game is going to be amazing!" he said as they walked out the doors to her car. "I cannot wait!"

Zoe laughed. "Me either. It's going to be amazing to sit right behind the bench, and then meet them! I still can't believe you got this all for me."

"Well, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do," he smiled. She had never noticed how cute his smile was, with his dark curly hair covering the top of his head, and his thick-rimmed square glasses shinning in the sun.

"Yea, I guess so," she said, throwing her pile of books in her back seat and closing the door. She got into the driver's seat as he sat down in the passenger seat, and she started the car.

"Hey, do you mind if I hook up my mp3 player to your FM adaptor?" he asked her, pulling it out of his bag.

"No, go ahead."

He plugged it in and turned it on as she tuned the radio to the station she used for it, and turned the sound up.

"So, what will be the first musical selection as we drive home today?" she asked, smiling at him.

"Oh, a surprise…" he answered as the song started.

She immediately recognized it and laughed. "Oh man, I love this song! Remember when they had that Sabres playoff commercial to this?" She began to sing along. "So take these words, and sing out loud! 'Cause everyone is forgiven now!" She looked over to see him smiling again.

"Poms, you make me laugh."

"I can tell!"

She pulled up in his driveway in about 5 minutes.

"I'll see you in school!"

"Yupp. Bye, Poms!"

"Bye!"

For some strange reason, as she pulled out of the driveway, she couldn't help but smile, thinking about how cute his smile had been all this time and she had never noticed it. Maybe Meg was right, even though she hated to admit it. Maybe there was a connection; maybe she was just imagining it. Well, whatever was happening, she'd hopefully figure it out on Wednesday, if not before.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day flew by, and before she knew it, it was already 3:30 Wednesday afternoon. Zoe brushed her hair into a ponytail, making sure every strand of it was in the perfect place. She already had jeans and one of her many Sabres t-shirts on, and she slipped on her Roy Jersey. She absolutely loved the Sabres, and couldn't wait to finally meet them. Still, she wondered why and how Sans had gotten those tickets and press passes. It wasn't a normal thing to find. Not to mention that the first game she had ever gone to was also against the Boston Bruins. For some reason, she didn't think THAT was just a coincidence.

She heard his car pull in at 3:55, grabbed her bag, and ran down the stairs.

"Sans is here, Mom. I'll see you later!" she screamed to her mother as she came thundering down the stairs.

"Wait…" her mother came into view. "How late are you going to be?"

"I don't know… Probably like 11 o'clock? The game starts at 7, and it takes a while to get out of the city…"

"Ok, just if we're asleep be quiet."

"Ok. Bye, Mom!" she kissed her on the cheek.

"Have a good time!" And with that, Zoe went out the door and ran to his car.

"Hey," he said as she opened the passenger door.

"Hey! Oh, I'm so excited!"

"Me too. You have the tickets?"

"Yes, sir!" she said as he drove off onto the road.

"So, where do you want to go for dinner?"

"Hmm… well, how about T.G.I. Friday's? We can park in the garage, then take the train to Friday's, then take it back to the arena."

"Ok, sounds good to me."

It took roughly 35 minutes to get downtown, and there were parked and on the train by 4:45. They ate dinner at Friday's and were back at the arena by 6:30. Both dressed in Sabres gear, they made their way to the arena, hardly able to control their energy at all.

"I still can't believe I'm actually going to get to MEET them! This is just amazing."

"Do you think you'll pass out when you meet Derek Roy?" he asked her, looking at her and smiling.

"Not pass out, just be absolutely stunned and speechless," she laughed. "And I have the perfect thing to say to him, trusting I'll be able to talk after a few breaths."

"And what's that?"

She laughed. "Well, it sounds pretty silly, and I'm sure he won't do it, but I'm going to say 'Can you please sign my lips with yours?'" She laughed again. "Yea, it'll never happen, but it doesn't hurt to hope, you know?"

They walked in through the arena, and found their seats right behind the bench. Steven left to go buy some drinks, and while Zoe was waiting, her phone rang. She found it in her purse and saw that Isabelle was calling.

"Yo, what's up, Belle?"

"Oh, nothing much. I just am SO absolutely excited that I will see you on TV tonight! It's going to be amazing! Make sure you wave every once in a while!"

"Oh, of course I will! I wish you guys were here too, though. It'd be awesome, the three of us going in the locker room… It's just like that dream I had, remember?"

Belle laughed. "Oh my god, that… That was the most awesome thing alive!"

"Well, I gotta get going. Sans is gonna be back any minute. Tell Blaire I say hey, and I'll try to get a kiss from Afinogenov for her. Same to you with Vanek! R-A-V for life!"

"WOO!! YEA! GO SABRES! Love you, Zo!"

"Love ya!"

Zoe hung up and placed her phone into her bag just as Steven came back carrying two Pepsis.

"Here you are, m' lady," he said, handing her one of them.

"Why, thank you very much, Steven!"

"No problem!"

The game began as it always did, with Sabretooth coming down from the ceiling on a rope, the huge introduction of the two teams, and the National Anthems. And with that, the puck was dropped, and the game was on!

At about 10 minutes left in the second period, the Sabres were in the lead 2-1, and as always, the arena people were taking charge of the quick break in play to do something fun with the audience, such as the Kiss Cam. Now, the rules of the Kiss Cam are simple. If the camera lands on you and you see yourself on the jumbotron, you have to kiss the man or woman next to you (whomever you are with). Zoe had always loved this, watching the older couples get caught on camera, then fiercely kiss each other, whereas the younger couples are just like "eh… I don't like PDA…" Yea, she wished they didn't like PDA so much at school either, especially first thing in the morning. Why ANYONE in their right mind would want their mouth being mashed with someone else's at 7AM was beyond her knowledge, and probably would be for as long as she lived. All she knew was that at 7AM, she would never find herself kissing someone, no matter how much she lov… and with that, her thoughts were interrupted by Sans KISSING HER. She was so shocked that she couldn't even close her eyes. She just sat there with him kissing her, her eyes wide open, staring at him. He pulled away from her, smiling, until he saw the look she was giving him.

"Oh my God… Poms, I'm so sorry… I really shouldn't have done that without asking you…" he said, sinking back into his seat.

"What was that for?" she asked him, still shocked.

"Weren't you watching? We were on the Kiss Cam…" he said, looking at her surprisingly. She guessed she had been watching, but not paying attention. She was too busy thinking about PDA at school, and how gross it is. How, though, would she have not noticed her own face on the jumbotron?

She turned to face Steven. "I'm sorry. You just shocked me. I guess I wasn't really paying attention."

"It's alright. I should've checked with you first anyway."

"Well, that was bad. Do it again," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, kiss me again. That was totally bad on my part. I should've actually done something."

"Well, it doesn't matter. We're not on the Kiss Cam anymore…"

"Well, no, but I want to kiss you."

He shot his head to look at her. "What?"

"I want to kiss you," she repeated herself.

"Wha…" was all he could get out.

"Fine, if you're not going to kiss me, I'm going to kiss you," and with that, she took his face in her hands and passionately kissed him. She felt his hand reach up and touch her face, brushing the hair out of the way, and lightly brushing her cheek with his thumb. It felt so different from the kiss from Chris; it felt almost better. She couldn't believe it. She had liked Chris since freshman year and still had that feeling that she liked him, yet Steven… she thought they were just friends. How could just friends share this passionate kiss and not pull away? For some reason, it just felt right kissing him. After what seemed like forever, they pulled away, Zoe faced forward to look at the game. She checked the clock and noticed it had only been about 5 seconds, even though it had felt like forever. Steven again interrupted her thoughts.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked her.

She looked at him and saw that cute smile on his face. "I don't know. I wanted to kiss you."

"But, why?"

"Because. I did."

"But, why?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" she slightly screamed at him. "I guess I like you!" At that exact moment the buzzer went off as Buffalo made a goal, and they shot up to cheer. As everyone sat down, the game went back into play, the excitement though, still hanging in the air.

"So, you like me?" he asked her.

"I guess so. I didn't know that I did until you kissed me, though," she laughed. "Sounds stupid, but whatever."

"No, it doesn't. Zoe, I'm so happy! I've been trying to tell you that I like you for quite sometime."

She looked at him again. "Are you serious? How long?"

"Uh… a few months…"

"Really?"

"No, not really. I can't lie. It's been about a few years, actually."

"What?!?"

He smiled. "Yea, it's been a few years. Sophomore year, when I moved here."

"Sans, how come you never told me?"

"I don't know… I didn't want to ruin our friendship…"

"You wouldn't have! I might've actually said yes." She smiled, but suddenly noticed her phone was ringing. She rummaged through her bag and found it right before it was going to go to her voicemail.

"Hello?"

"ZOE! IT'S BELLE! GET TO A QUIET PLACE RIGHT NOW!"

"Okay… hold on." She turned to Sans. "I'll be right back. I have to take this call."

"Alright. I'll tell you if anything happens."

She went up the aisle and found the bathroom. "What do you want?"

"HOLY SHIT! MOTHER VANEK! WHAT THE HELL?"

"What? What are you freaking out about?"

"YOU! YOU! YOU KISSED HIM!"

"Who?"

"SANS!"

"Wha… how did you know? That was like 2 seconds ago!"

"YOU WERE ON TV!"

"WHAT?!"

"YOU WERE ON NATIONAL TV LIP-LOCKED WITH STEVEN!"

"Oh my… no… this is bad… really bad…"

"Yea, no kidding! Now people will think you're going out!"

"No, it's not because of that… Oh my God… I hope Chris wasn't watching… just my luck, this is going to be the one game he's gonna watch…"

"Wait, why do you hope Chris isn't watching? Wait… did you just kiss Chris like today? Cause that'd be terrible…"

"No, I didn't kiss him today. I made out with him on Saturday and Sunday… Oh God… this is not good…"

"No, it's not. It's amazing! You are sooo a playa, ma chica! Wow… the most innocent of us all turns bad-ass… now we all know we can become what we want to become in life!"

Zoe laughed. "Iz, shut up. You're such a meanie. But really, I gotta get back. I don't want to miss the game!"

"Ok, ok. But just so you know, that lip-lock looked pretty hot. You might wanna be careful in school tomorrow."

"I'll call you when I get home, okay? Cause I wanna talk to you anyway."

"Alrighty. Talk to you later."

"Yupp, bye." She hung up and walked back to her aisle, waited for a break in play, and went back to her seat. There was 56 seconds left in play, and unfortunately the Bruins had made a goal within the time that she was gone, so the Sabres were still in the lead, but the score was close: 3-2. The buzzer rang for the break after 2nd period, and the Sabres came off the ice and walked down the hallway to the locker room, giving high fives to the people hanging their hands over the bars. Zoe could've sworn that as Derek Roy came walked past her in the bench, he winked at her. All she could do was smile, and hope she didn't look like a total freak.


	7. Chapter 7

The game ended with the Sabres winning 6-3, yet another ironic thing, since the first game she had seen against the Bruins, the Sabres had won 6-3 also. They filed out with everyone else, but made their way to the locker room with their press passes, escorted by security. They waited outside for about 10 minutes, and were finally let in once all the players were in somewhat suitable attire. Zoe walked in, staring at everything in awe. Sans helped her walk a little, and coincidently, they went straight up to Derek Roy.

Sans introduced them to him. "Hi, my name is Steven, and this is my friend Zoe."

"Hey, yea, I saw you guys sitting behind the bench. I love your jersey, Zoe," he said as he smiled that same amazing smile that he always had that she fell in love with.

"Uh… thanks…" she said faintly. "I, uh, have a question…"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Uh… could you… sign… my…"

Sans noticed she was having difficulties. He had never known that she liked Derek Roy THAT much… "She wants to know if you'll sign her jersey, and if you'll sign her lips with yours."

When Zoe had realized that he had just said that, she suddenly shot to attention.

"Wait, did you just say what I think you said?" she said to him.

"Yea… Come on, you told me you wanted to say it, but you wouldn't be able to because you'd be too in awe, which is exactly what happened. I know you're dying to kiss him."

"Sans…" she said, but was inturrpted by Roy.

"I'd love to sign your jersey and your lips."

She shot her head to look at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Do you have a marker for your jersey?"

"Uh, yea, lemme get it… Hey, would you mind if I got a picture of you kissing me too?" she said, rummaging through her bag.

"Sure, why not? And we can have a good one too."

She never thought a jock could be this nice. It was the weirdest thing in the world. She pulled her camera out with a permanent marker, handed the camera to Sans, and handed the marker to Derek.

"How about the kiss first, then I'll sign it," he said.

"Okay. Is the camera ready, Sans?"

"Yupp, it's ready," Sans answered her.

"Okay." She looked at Derek and smiled. "I just can't believe you said yes…"

"Hey, why not? You're pretty hot." He smiled again.

She giggled like a little girl. "Thanks…"

He grabbed her waist with one of his hands while he took his other hand and put it to her face, somewhat like the way Chris had done the other day, but kind of hotter. He leaned forward, and kissed her, first just a small yet passionate kiss (which she saw the flash go off through her closed eyelids), and then he forced her lips apart and slipped his tongue in, again like Chris had done. She saw the flash of her camera go off again, and was so happy she had thought of taking a picture to prove what she had done. She put her hands on his waste and pulled herself closer to him, forcing his tongue even deeper.

_I'm so fucking lucky!_ She thought to herself. _I'm kissing one of the hottest Buffalo Sabres right now, and there are going to be pictures to PROVE IT! Not to mention, that I'm also lucky since he's the shortest player and I'm not too tall myself…_

He finished the "kiss" (it was more like a make out) with one little kiss on the corner of her mouth, and she was almost speechless as she opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"So, where do you want me to sign it?" he asked, pulling the marker out of his back pocket where he must've slipped it.

"Uh, right here. On the logo," she said, holding out the giant yellow buffalo from her jersey.

Right when he was about to sign it, Lindy Ruff, the head coach of the Sabres, came into the locker room.

"Don't forget, boys, today's jerseys are going to be given away as game-worn jerseys, and we're getting new ones tomorrow. That's all. Good game." And with that, he left.

"Hey, do you want my jersey instead? I'll sign both of them," Derek said to Zoe.

"Oh my God, that'd be AMAZING!"

"Okay, lemme go see if it's clean yet." He left to go find it, and Zoe turned to face Sans.

"Oh my God…" she said.

"That kiss was pretty hot," he smiled. "I got a few pictures for you."

"Thanks, Sans!" she hugged him. "You are amazing!"

"Hey, no problem."

Derek Roy came back, carrying his clean jersey.

"Now you'll have an away and a home jersey," he said, handing his jersey to her. "You can just give me your phone number or something, and I'll call you when they have the little tags that say "Game Worn" on them so you can bring it in and get it put on."

"Okay, thanks so much!"

"Yea, no problem. But now, I have to sign them."

"Oh, yea." She held out the buffalo again. He signed it, but told her not to read it until later. "Okay…"

He picked up her other jersey, and she slipped it on over her other one, and he signed it in the same place, and on the 9 on the back. Again he told her not to read it yet.

They then took a normal picture with her in her game-worn jersey.

"Well, I should probably be getting home… it IS a school night…" she said.

"Yea, just give me your number so I can call you."

"Oh yea, that's right." He pulled out a piece of paper from his little "cubby" and she wrote her number on it, and handed it back.

"Thank you so much again for everything!" she said, hugging him.

"Hey, no problem. I love my fans," he said. "I'll talk to you soon, hopefully!"

"Yea, talk to you soon!" she said. He kissed her on the cheek, hugged her one more time, and she left.

"Thanks again!" she said as she walked towards the door. "Oh, wait! Do you have any other paper?" she asked.

"Yea, why?"

"Well, I promised two of my friends I'd get kisses from their favorite players, and maybe autographs."

"Oh, who?"

"Vanek and Afinogenov."

"Oh, okay. YO! TOM! MAX! COME HERE!" he screamed across the locker room.

"Hi," she said as they came over.

"My friend Zoe here wants your autographs and kisses for her friends," Roy told them.

They both agreed to it, and each signed the pieces of paper, kissing them after. It was a little weird, but Zoe couldn't possibly kiss them after she had just kissed Derek Roy AND Sans. Plus, there was no way to "pass on the kisses" to her friends without kissing her friends, and that would just be really awkward…

"Thank you again, so much, all of you!" she said, hugging each of them. She walked out of the locker room with a huge smile on her face, she knew, but she didn't care. She couldn't smile enough to show just how happy she was.

"So, did you have a good time?" Sans asked her as they walked out of the arena.

"No, I had an amazing time! Thank you so much, Sans!"

"No problem! It's just the way I am…" he smiled.

She stopped walking. "Steven, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

She took a breath and breathed out, noticing that she could see her breath. "Steven, would you like to go out with me sometime?"

He gaped at her. "Zoe… no."

"What?"

"Zoe, will YOU go out with ME sometime?"

Zoe stood there looking at him. "I just asked you that."

"No, you asked me if I would go you with YOU. The guy is supposed to ask. So, would you like to go out with me?"

She smiled. "I would love to. As long as I get to call you my boyfriend…"

"Of course. Can I call you my girlfriend then?"

"Of course."

Steven started walking again.

"Wait," Zoe said, grabbing his hand.

"Yes?"

She pulled him closer to her, put her hand on his cheek, pulled his head down a little to reach hers, and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck, and they stood on the walkway just kissing each other. It was more romantic than she thought it would've been. It wasn't any fancy kiss, it was a simple kiss, but it was still so romantic. She didn't want to let go of him; he was just so perfect right now. And, she didn't care how many people had seen her on TV, they were boyfriend and girlfriend now, they could have their own PDA moments!

They walked back to the car holding hands, keeping close in the nippy weather, and were back at her house around 11 o'clock, just like she had told her mom.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said to him as she opened the door.

"Yea, goodnight, Zoe!" he said, kissing her on the cheek.

"Goodnight!"

She walked up to her front door, unlocked it, and waved at him before she went in. She couldn't believe she actually was going to be Steven's girlfriend. She couldn't wait to tell someone. Which reminded her; she had to call Isabelle.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Zoe got a call while she was getting dressed.

"Hello?" she said in a groggy voice.

"Hey, it's Steven."

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just wondering if you could maybe give me a ride in today? I slept in and I'm probably going to miss the bus."

"Yea, I'll pick you up around 7, okay?"

"Yea, that's fine. Thank you so much! I love you!"

"Love you," she said, and closed her phone, not realizing what she had just said. It hit her a minute later. She had just told him that she loved him… but did she really mean it? She hoped she did. Otherwise, that'd be terrible. Lying on their first day of being a couple, no, that's bad.

She picked him up on her way to school, and they drove there, somewhat awkwardly.

"So…" he said. "How are you this morning?"

"Tired… but still extremely happy," she responded, thinking about last night. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. What's up?"

"How did you get those tickets and press passes?"

He laughed. "My uncle works at the arena, and I asked if there was any possible way for me to get that stuff. Why?"

"I don't know, it's just not a common thing to find someone giving to another one, you know?"

"Yea, I guess."

"So, what does your uncle do?" When she asked this, he seemed to look a little awkward.

"I, uh, I don't really know…" he said. "I just know that he, uh, works there. Yea…"

"Oh, okay."

They arrived to school and walked up the sidewalk together. As they walked, Steven reached out and grabbed Zoe's hand, surprising her a little. They walked up to Zoe's locker on the 3rd floor, and they walked to 1st period band together. Since they both were huge into music, and the directors allowed it, they were both in 2 of the 4 bands, on different instruments in each, though. The bands were in an odd order, too. 1st period was the worst band, 2nd period was the best band, and 3rd and 4th period bands were tied for the middle. Although they were in supposedly the worst bands, there were both 1st chairs because they were the strongest. The directors liked the older ones being there to help the bad players, so they technically weren't part of the "worst players" crowd. Zoe played bassoon in that band, and Steven played bass clarinet. Sadly, with Zoe's luck, she unfortunately had to deal with Meg playing bassoon with her. Meg, obviously, was one of the "worst players," but thought she was amazing and constantly complained about how she should be in 2nd period band instead. Luckily, though, Meg was NOT a Sabres fan, so Zoe would hopefully not have to deal with her asking her about Steven.

As they walked into the room together, they noticed some people look at them like "I saw you guys kiss last night…" but they just ignored the looks and walked to their lockers. Zoe heard Meg come in, since she did the same thing every morning: walk in, giggling like crazy over some cute guy, with her friend that, according to Zoe, had no business in the music wing, since she was not a music person. She simply stalked them all. She would stay after school and just sit outside the band room and stare at anyone in it. It was the creepiest thing ever. Suddenly, Zoe felt someone grab her and whip her around.

"Oh my God…" Meg laughed in that stupid laugh Zoe hated. "Stevey said he'd go to the movies with me tomorrow! I'm so excited!"

"Uh, Meg, no he didn't," Zoe said, putting her bassoon together.

"Yes he did!" Meg said back, unlocking her locker.

"Steven," Zoe said to him, as he was finishing putting his instrument together, "did you say you were going to the movies with Meg on tomorrow?"

"No, I didn't. I'm spending tomorrow night with you, of course!" he said, closing up his case and walking over to her.

"No, you deffinetly said you're going with me, Stevey," Meg complained.

"No, I didn't. I said I'd check my schedule. Anyway, I can't. I can't cheat on my girlfriend, or lead her on to thinking I'm cheating on her."

"You have a girlfriend? WHO?"

"Zoe."

Meg stared her down. "Since when, huh? I thought you said you didn't like him."

"I didn't," she bluntly said, "not until last night." She looked up at him, and he kissed her surprisingly.

Meg stared them down coldly, didn't say a word, and walked to her seat.

_So THIS is why people kiss at 7AM…_Zoe thought to herself.

The time between 1st period and 6th period flew by, and every time Zoe saw Meg, not a word was spoken to her. It was nice to meet up with Lizzy, Isabelle, and Blaire to go down to lunch, and they gossiped about the Sabres game all the way down the 3 flights of stairs. They sat down together, still talking about the kiss, when Steven came over.

"Hey, sweetheart," he said to Zoe as he kissed her on the cheek. "Hello, ladies," he said to the rest of her table. "May I sit with you?"

"Of course," Lizzy replied. "We were just talking about that cute little lip-lock that we all saw on TV last night."

"Oh yes, that," he said, laughing. "Yea, Zoe's an amazing kisser, I must admit."

Zoe shot him a look. "Yea, you too…"

Almost the entire lunch period, they talked about the Sabres as they usually did, and the rest of the day flew by. Again, after school, she did her usual and again drove Steven home.

"Hey, how about I just pick you up and drive you home everyday now?" she asked him in the car on the way home.

"Sure, that'd be awesome. And maybe a ride to practice tonight?" he asked her.

"Of course."

She dropped him off, went home, and did her homework, just like she always did. She finished it just in time to go pick up Steven and be at rehearsal the usual 20 minutes early that section leaders had to be there.

"So, how do you not know what your uncle does at the arena?" she asked him as they drove there.

"Well, I do…" he said.

"Then, what does he do?"

"He runs one of the cameras," he said as they pulled into a parking spot at school.

"Oh? That's cool."

"Yea," he said, "he's the one who put us on the Kiss Cam."

"Wait, what?" she said, turning the car off.

"He's the one who put us on the Kiss Cam."

"So, you set me up for that?" she screamed at him.

"Uh… I guess so…"

"You're such an idiot!" she screamed getting out of the car and slamming the door. "You better look for another ride home and rides to school. I'm not picking you up tomorrow!" she screamed, walking away, with no more words left to say. He just stood there dumbfounded.

Zoe was so tense the entire rehearsal, and Chris must've noticed, since he kept trying to comfort her, but nothing he could do would make her any happier. During a break in rehearsal, Steven tried to talk to her, but all she did was say "I don't want to talk to you for the rest of the week," and walk away. Later, she saw him talking to Meg, who suddenly had a huge smile on her face. Zoe had no idea why, but didn't care much; she was probably just flirting with him again.

At the end of the practice, Zoe walked into the band room to put her instrument away and stay for the usual section leader meeting, and found Steven huddled in a little circle with some guys, one of which was Chris. When Chris saw Zoe walk in, though, he left the circle to talk to her.

"Hey, Zoe, are you going out with Steven?" he asked her.

"As of the moment, no. I found out that he set me up for a kiss so that I would think I liked him, and now, no. We're taking a break. Why?"

"Well, because he's going to the movies with Meg tomorrow night, and I thought maybe that was weird 'cause this morning, you two were a couple…"

"Wait, what? He's going to the movies with Meg tomorrow??"

"Yea…"

With that, she walked over to Steven, whipped him around, and screamed, "We are THROUGH! We are no longer a couple. I hope you go fuck Meg tomorrow just to make SOMEONE happy. And, by the way, I didn't mean it when I said 'I love you' this morning. I was out of it. I didn't mean it. And, you're such an ass. You need to get a life." And with that, she walked away from him, angered, and went over to Lizzy who was standing with Kelsey and Paige, the other co-section leaders of the clarinets.

"Lizzy, I know this may sound kinda weird, but could I spend tomorrow night at your house?"

"Sure," Lizzy said. "What's the occasion?"

"I just broke up with Steven."

"What?" Kelsey said. "Why? You guys were going out for less than 24 hours!"

"Well, I found out he set me up at the Sabres game and he's going out with Meg tomorrow."

"What?" Lizzy screamed. "Where is she?"

"She's over there with Steven, why?"

Lizzy didn't say another word, walked over to her, and slapped her across the face while making it look like a fall.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry…." she walked away, "NOT!" and she ran back to the three. "Problem solved," she said to Zoe.

Zoe gave her a huge hug. "I love you, Lizzy…"


	9. Chapter 9

Zoe went over to Lizzy's house around 5:30, and they decide to go out to dinner to The Olive Garden. When they got back around 7:30, they went on the computer to find that Lizzy's next-door neighbor Jaxson was online. Zoe had never told Lizzy, but she had always found Jaxson pretty cute. He had gorgeous blonde hair, not too long, not too short, that just flowed nicely with his face, and he had glasses, which Zoe was attracted to like most of her friends. He was also one of the funniest guys she knew that wasn't an ass besides. They were friends, almost best friends, since they talked about a lot of stuff, especially "deep" stuff, but she knew she never had a chance with him. He wasn't a jock or anything, but he just wasn't the type to date a band geek.

"Jaxson and Charli are coming over," Lizzy said to her, taking her away from her thoughts.

"Oh… okay," Zoe responded. It kind of made her happy to think of seeing Jaxson. He always brightened her day. And she was sure that Lizzy wouldn't be in a bad mood with Charli around. She had liked him ever since she moved here in 8th grade, and Zoe knew her crush hadn't weakened any bit.

The doorbell rang about 5 minutes later and Zoe answered it.

"Hey, you guys! It's nice to see you!"

"Sure is!" said Jaxson as he walked in the door and slipped his shoes off. Charli followed with a smile.

Lizzy came out of her computer room. "Hey, guys, you can just go on in the TV area. I'll be there in a minute."

The two brothers walked into the TV room as Lizzy went into the kitchen to make some pizza, Zoe following her to get some drinks.

As she looked through the fridge, Zoe found a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

"Hey, Lizzy, can we have this?" she laughed, holding up the bottle.

Lizzy laughed too. "Sure, it's just sparkling grape juice…" Zoe pulled down 4 glasses from the cupboards and took them out into the TV room, where Jaxson and Charli were arguing over something.

"What are you guys arguing over?" she asked them.

"Who has the better 6-pack," Jaxson replied.

"I deffinetly do," Charli said. "I'm on the varsity football team. I have to have a better 6-pack than you. You do nothing but sit around all day."

"Oh contraire, my dear brother. I do NOT sit around all day. I go running every day when you are at football practice."

"Yea… I bet you do."

"I do! Lizzy has seen me running before, right Lizzy?" he said as Lizzy walked into the room having put the pizza in the oven already.

"Yupp. He goes running by everyday."

Oh, how Zoe wished she could watch him run, his leg muscles working to the best of their ability, and betting he had a better 6-pack and ran shirtless…

"That's your leg muscles, though," Charli said. "That proves nothing of your abs."

"Maybe so, but I also do crunches everyday and I do other ab work-outs."

"You guys," Zoe interrupted, "why don't you just show us your abs so we can decide who has the better 6-pack?"

"That'd work…" said Charli. He and Jaxson lifted up their shirt to reveal their very well defined 6-packs, both perfect in their own ways. Zoe literally had to look away for a second just to make sure she wasn't imagining it. Okay, so she thought Jaxson might have a pretty nice 6-pack, but never THIS nice. Steven could never possibly amount to that, and Chris was close, but not close enough.

"Well?" Jaxson asked.

"I like yours," Lizzy and Zoe said simultaneously, each one pointing at her crush's 6-pack. They both burst out laughing.

"Well, that settles it," Jaxson said. "We have equally good abs."

"I still think mine's better," Charli said, putting his shirt down.

The 4 hung out for a few hours, eating pizza, playing random games, and just talking. The whole time, Zoe hid her crushing from the three of them, and was happy that she finally figured out how to do so, since she usually couldn't. They guys left at about midnight, and Lizzy and Zoe cleaned up.

"So, Zoe, why'd you pick Jaxson's abs?" Lizzy asked her as they unrolled their sleeping bags in Lizzy's TV area.

"I don't know, I thought they were nicer. I mean, no offense, but Charli's were a little too well-defined, you know?"

"Yea, I actually liked Jaxson's better too, but I couldn't say that just incase I have a chance with Charli, which I don't, but whatever."

"You so do. He's your neighbor! You can flirt anytime you want to!"

"Yea, but I'm not good at it. He'd never like me."

"Yea, the guy I like will never like me either."

"Wait, who?"

"Oh… no one…"

"No, there's someone. Is that why you dumped Steven last night?"

"No, I dumped him, but then, I remembered this one guy that I've been crushing for years."

"Who? Tell me! Wait, it's Chris, right?"

"No, it's not. But Chris is really hot, don't get me wrong."

"Then who is it?"

"I don't know if I want to tell you…"

"You do. I know you do."

"Okay, fine… It's…"

"SPIT IT OUT!"

"Jaxson…"

"No way! I would've never guessed it! You show no signs at all!"

"Yea, I know. I've taught myself well, haven't I?"

"Uh, yea! So, tell me why!"

Zoe went on to describe why she like him and why she hadn't told Lizzy at all. Little did she know, though, that when she had told Lizzy, Jaxson had been at her front door about to ring the doorbell, and heard everything.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, is that yours?" Lizzy asked, pointing to a hoodie that was lying on her couch.

"No, I think it's Jaxson's," Zoe said.

"Oh, you want it?" Lizzy laughed.

"No, that's quite alright, I'm not obsessed with him."

"Oh, okay." Lizzy smiled. "Oh my God, wouldn't that be hilarious if we both dated them married them? You marry Jaxson; I marry Charli. Then, we could be sisters-in-law!"

Zoe laughed. "That'd be so cute! Our kids could be cousins, and we'd see each other so much!"

"Yea, I know!" Lizzy laughed. "Wow, we're so weird… thinking about getting married to brothers just to be related…"

"Yea, but hey! That's us!"

Jaxson left when he had heard that, thinking that if he stayed any longer he would hear things he was sure they really didn't want him to know. He decided he'd pick up his hoodie some other time.

The girls stayed up until 3 talking about the usual things: boys, school, band, etc. while eating some delicious ice cream and other treats. In the morning, one of Lizzy's little sisters, Nina, came running down the stair screaming, waking up both the girls at 9. They had breakfast, cleaned up their things, and Lizzy helped Zoe put her things in her car.

"Hey, you want me to drive you to rehearsal today?" Zoe asked her. "I mean, we have to be there in a little less than an hour."

"Sure, let me just get all my things together," Lizzy said. "How about you run over and give Jaxson his sweatshirt?"

Zoe looked at her. "Must I?"

"Come on, it's just another excuse to look at him…"

Zoe laughed. "True… Yea I guess. I'll just walk over." She looked in her rear-view mirror, made sure she didn't look absolutely crappy, and headed over. She rang the doorbell and Jaxson answered the door shirtless.

"Oh, hey, what's up?"

"Uh, nothing…" Zoe said, trying not to sound like she was loving how he had answered the door.

He looked down. "Oh, sorry, I was just exercising."

"No, it's alright. Uh, you left your, uh, hoodie over at Lizzy's last night. I just was returning it," she said, handing it to him.

"Oh, thanks! I was wondering where I left that."

Zoe smiled. "Yea… hey, it's our home competition for marching band tonight, do you want to come watch it?"

Jaxson smiled too. "Sure, I'd love to. What time is it at?"

"The show starts at 5:30, we're on at around 9ish, I think. It's our senior show, so it's pretty big," she said. "It's $6 dollars to get in."

"Oh, good, nice and cheap!"

Zoe laughed. "Yea, definitely cheaper than a movie. Well, I gotta head out. We have practice in like 45 minutes."

"Oh, yea. I'll definitely try to get there. I'm sure I'll be able to make it to see you guys, at least."

"Oh, and if you want to, follow us back to the school and find us after, we always go out to eat after."

"Okay, that'd be great."

Zoe walked down his driveway, smiling to herself, thinking about how exciting it'd be to actually have him come to the show. She walked down the street and up Lizzy's driveway to find her standing by the car waiting for her.

"What took you so long?" Lizzy asked her.

"How long was I over there?" Zoe asked.

"Not long, I was just teasing."

"Oh, okay," Zoe said, sitting down in her car and starting it. "I asked Jaxson if he wanted to come to the show tonight."

"You did? Congrats!"

"Yea, I guess," she said, speeding up.

"That'll be awesome if he comes, don't you think?"

"Uh, yea. I want him to come."

"I think you should tell him."

"Tell him what?"

"Uh, that you LIKE HIM!" Lizzy said exaggeratingly.

"How about, no!"

"Oh, come on, why not?" Lizzy whined.

"Because. That's weird. 'Hey, Jaxson! Thanks for coming to the show! I like you!' No, it doesn't work."

"Well, you wouldn't do it like that…"

"Whatever, I'm not going to," Zoe said, pulling into her driveway. "I just gotta get a few things, then we're off, okay?"

"Yupp, no problem."

"Why don't you come in and visit with Christine?"

"Okay." The two walked up her driveway and were greeted as always with Christine kisses. Zoe ran up to her room to change her clothes and get her stuff for the competition, and went back downstairs. She kissed her parents, and said they had to get going.

"Okay, honey," her mom said. "Good luck! We'll be cheering you on!"

"Thanks, Mom!"

"When she said that," Lizzy said, "She meant good luck with Jaxson…"

"Shut up," Zoe laughed. She hoped, though, that she'd have amazing luck with Jaxson, even though it was totally pointless even hoping. He would never like her. She's just not his type.


	11. Chapter 11

The air was crisp, and had the smell of fall in it. The sun had gone done about an hour ago and the moon was already bright in the sky behind them as they marched forward onto the field. Zoe held her mellophone mouthpiece in her gloved hands so that it wouldn't get cold. Her breath steamed out in front of her, reminding her of her first home competition. That night was terrible. As she stood on the field waiting for the band to be called to attention, the images flashed in her head. She had been smacked by a flag causing her to slip and take down 3 other people with her. They had all landed on her leg the wrong way, twisted it, and she couldn't even walk. She was terrorized by people marching backwards, and finally a director saw her sitting on the ground, crippled.

"Band ten HUT!" screamed the drum major, Will, and she replied with everyone.

"AND HUT!"

"Roland Hill High School, you may now take the field in competition."

The raised they instruments up to their mouths perfectly in unison. Zoe played every note flawlessly, marched every step perfectly, and breathed as if she would never breathe again. When their show was finished, she felt a rush of adrenaline just go right out her toes, and as they marched off the field, she began to cry. As the band lined up at the 10-yard line, all the seniors broke rank, handing their instruments to the underclassmen to hold while they did their senior recognition. Lizzy, Kristy, Laura, Kelsey, and Paige came running up to Zoe, realizing she was crying.

"Zoe, you have to stop crying!" Laura said. "You don't want your eyes being all red in the picture, do you?"

Zoe laughed. "No, I don't." She smiled. "I love you guys!" and they all hugged. They met up with their parents at the end of the field, and alphabetically walked out in a line. As she stood between her mom and dad, she looked into the crowd and saw Jaxson standing right in front of her at the fence smiling at her. She smiled back and gave a little wave, which he returned with one himself. As they went down the line, each senior stepped forward with his or her parent(s) and received flowers, being mentioned that they were a section leader if they were.

"Zoe Pominger, daughter of Mark and Lily Pominger, section leader of the mellophones." She received her flowers, smiled for the picture, and then burst into tears, her mother holding her tight.

"I know, honey, I know. At least it's not your last competition ever… It's just your last home one."

Zoe looked up to here mom, and said, "I love you," and kissed her on the cheek. She faced forward to get a full class picture when all the names were called, and they all filed off the field.

They won 1st place again, and went back to the school in great cheer. In the locker room, someone had put on a CD and many of the girls were dancing around in only half their uniform, some even in just their underwear. It was kind of funny to see all these girls that were supposed to be conservative running around in a t-shit and underwear, but they were all surprisingly different.

Meg came running over to Laura at one point, and what seemed like a little too obnoxiously said, "Oh my God. I went to the movies with Steven last night, and he is such a good kisser! Oh, I have no idea why ANYONE would give him up!"

Zoe knew that was directed at her, and decided to own her own comment. "Maybe someone would give him up because he's a total ass and set them up. Maybe, also, because he asked another girl out the day that his girlfriend gave him the silent treatment."

"Well, I have news for you, bitch, you're not his girlfriend anymore!" Meg said, pushing her boobs into her space again. "I am!"

"I know. I dumped him so he could go date a whore. Looks like he picked a good one, too!" Zoe grabbed her bag as she said this, and left the locker room with Kristy, Lizzy, and Laura following, leaving Meg alone to change by herself.

Lizzy put her arm in Zoe's. "That was amazing, seriously."

"Yea, I know. I have my moments," Zoe laughed. They hung up their uniforms in numerical order, and as they began to walk away, someone grabbed Zoe's waist, making her scream. She whipped around to discover Jaxson was the one who had done that.

"Oh, hi!" she said, smiling.

"Hey, you guys did an awesome job. The tears added a nice effect," he mocked.

"Oh, be quiet," Zoe laughed. "You're just jealous that you couldn't have a piece of it!"

Lizzy, Jaxson, and Zoe all laughed.

"So, Jaxson, you coming with us out to eat?" Lizzy asked.

"Sure, I'd love to. Where are we going?"

"I think we're going to go to Duff's."

"Okay, that's fine. I'll just wait for you guys out here."

Lizzy and Zoe walked back into the band room, got their instruments, told the rest of their friends where they were going, and went out to meet up with Jaxson again.

"So, are you going to tell Jaxson?" Lizzy asked as they walked down the hallway towards him.

"No, I'm not. He doesn't need to know. Not yet."

"Right…"

They met up with Jaxson and walked out to their cars. Lizzy went in Zoe's car, and Jaxson followed them to Duff's. Since they were first, they reserved a table.

"I gotta pee, I'll be right back," Lizzy said, leaving Zoe and Jaxson alone at the table.

"You guys really did do a great job," he said.

Zoe smiled. "Thanks. I was so nervous, but I think I did pretty much everything perfectly."

"You did, I was watching you the whole time," he said.

She looked at him. "You were?"

"Yea…"

It was a little different for Zoe, being left alone with Jaxson one-on-one. Usually, the only time that they were one-on-one was online, and then, she didn't care what the hell she looked like or sounded like. She simply was just a bunch of words he had to read. But now, he actually had to look at her, while she was all sweaty and probably gross looking, having no makeup on at all.

He must've been reading her thoughts, since he broke the silence with, "You know what, I love talking in person so much more than online."

"Why's that?" she asked.

"Because, I just can't take my eyes off you. You're so beautiful."

She laughed. "You must be joking… I'm so gross and sweaty. I'm far from attractive in the first place anyway."

"No, that's not true. You have natural beauty. I actually kind of hate it when you wear make-up. It doesn't look good on you. You don't need it."

She smiled. "Thanks…"

"Zoe, I'm not just saying this. I really mean it."

"Yea, I'm sure…"

"No, really. Zoe, I have something to tell you. I went to Lizzy's house to get my sweatshirt a little while after I left, and I overheard you guys talking."

"Oh… you did?" Zoe squirmed a little.

"Yea. I heard what you said about me. You are such a sweetheart to think all of that. Zoe, you really are so beautiful, I mean it, I just don't know if I like you the same way you like me."

"Oh… that's ok. You might even just be rebound, you know?" Zoe said, trying to laugh it off a little.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I just broke up with my boyfriend Thursday, so maybe I really don't like you. Maybe I just thought I did."

"But, what if you do?"

"Then, I do. No big deal."

Lizzy came back, followed by mostly Zoe's party list, who all sat down surrounding Zoe and Jaxson.

They sat there for a few hours, talking about marching band and other random things, eating loads of wings and other food, just having a good time. They left at around midnight, and Jaxson followed Lizzy and Zoe all the way home.

As Zoe pulled into Lizzy's driveway, she noticed Jaxson pull in too.

"Why is he pulling in too?" she said.

"I don't know, maybe he wants to talk to you…" Lizzy said. "Hey, thanks for all the rides tonight. You're such an awesome friend!"

"Yea, no problem! See ya!"

Zoe heard Lizzy tell Jaxson I was in the car, and suddenly there was a tap on her window.

"Hey, could you maybe get out? I want to talk to you," Jaxson said as she rolled down her window.

She turned the car off and got out of it. "What's up?" she asked.

"I felt bad about what I said in Duff's."

"No, it's alright. You don't like me, I understand."

"No, it's not that I don't like you. I don't know if I like you. I think I might actually like you."

"Well, tell me when you know, ok?" she said, going to open her door.

"Wait, I think I know how I'll know."

"How?" she said, facing him again.

"Can I kiss you?"

She looked shocked. "What?"

"I said, can I kiss you?"

"Wha…" she stood there. _Why do all these guys suddenly want to kiss me? Did I suddenly become sexy because I'm a senior or something?_

"Well?" he asked.

She didn't even answer. She took his chin in her hands and pulled it towards her. As they kissed, she could've sworn that so far, he had the hottest kiss. He put his hands on her waist, pushing her back against her car. She ran her fingers through his hair, feeling the locks tumble through the crevices between her fingers, and with the other hand, she gently touched the nape of his neck with her fingertips. She let him keep kissing her, and he slowly made his way from her lips to her cheeks to her neck. She hoped that Lizzy's little sisters weren't anywhere watching, this definitely was not something for them to see.

"Jaxson," she said as he kissed her neck, "do you want to come over?"

He stopped and looked at her. "Wouldn't your parents mind?"

"No, they're fine with it. You're just going to hang out, anyway."

"Okay, I'll just follow you to your house."

"Okay."

They both got into their cars, pulled out of Lizzy's driveway, and made their 3-minute trip up the hill to Zoe's house.


	12. Chapter 12

First thing the next morning, Zoe called Lizzy and woke her up.

"Come over right now!" she said.

"Wha… Why?" Lizzy said, sounding a little tired.

"Just do it," Zoe said, and hung up.

Lizzy was over there in about 5 minutes, and Zoe answered the door before she even had the chance to ring the doorbell. Lizzy was surprised to see her dressed in a long shirt as a nightgown, but didn't even get the chance to ask her why, since she was whisked off to Zoe's backyard too quickly.

As they walked back, Zoe whispered, "I have a problem. I think I did something that I shouldn't have done, but I don't remember any of it."

When they arrived to Zoe's campfire pit, Lizzy suddenly stopped.

"Is that Jaxson laying there?"

"Yes. I woke up this morning, and for some reason, he had no shirt on and neither did I."

"Are you saying you think you had…. 'it'?" Lizzy asked, almost not whispering.

"No, not that. 'Cause we both still had pants and underwear on, but I don't know what I did do! All I remember is talking about marching band, and kissing a little. Other than that, I have no idea where our shirts came off."

Lizzy laughed. "You are turning into a slut, Zoe…"

"Shut up, I am not!"

"Yes, you are. This is like the 5th guy you've kissed in a week."

"No, only 4th."

"Same difference. 2 of them were shirtless too. Anyway, you've kissed more guys in one week than I ever have in my life."

"That's because you haven't kissed any guy."

"Yea, but you want to kiss my brother," Jaxson said, rolling over. He scared them, since neither of them knew that he was up.

"What the hell? Way to scare us," Lizzy practically screamed at him.

He sat up. "Lizzy, just tell him. He'll want to hear it. He's never heard it before."

"Yea, I bet," she said. "He plays football. He probably has cheerleaders fawning over him."

"I meant from someone other than a cheerleader. He can't stand them. He thinks they're pointless. The only thing they do I try to distract the other players from their game, according to him at least."

"Well, whatever. I'm not telling him."

"Fine. Be that way. You know, guys really hate it when girls don't tell them that they like them. It's incredibly annoying."

"Anyway," Zoe interrupted, "what happened last night, Jaxson?"

"We made out, and we both slipped our shirts off. It's obvious."

"How many times have you done this?"

"Um, once."

"Really, I thought you had done it more."

"Nope. Once. With you."

"Wait, what?"

He laughed. "Zoe, you were my first kiss last night."

She gaped. "I was?"

"Yea."

"Well, what about that girl you dated for like a month?"

"Never kissed her. She never wanted to when I did, and the moment never felt right when she wanted to."

"Oh… well, you have a hot kiss for someone that never has kissed before."

He smiled. "Thanks." He grabbed his shirt and slid it on. "I better get going. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait," Zoe said, and he turned around. She kissed his cheek. "Bye."

He smiled and walked back to her front yard, started up his car, and left.

"So, you're going to have to tell me all about this," Lizzy said, helping Zoe pick up the blankets.

"Nothing happened. I guess we just made out. I kind of feel bad I don't remember any of it. I mean, it was his first time. I feel really bad."

"It's alright, I'm sure you'll remember parts of it randomly throughout the day."

"I hope so…"

Lizzy left after she helped Zoe bring in the blankets, and for the rest of the day, Zoe did her homework and tried to remember last night. Just as Lizzy had said, she DID remember things randomly throughout the day, and she smiled every time she did. She did sort of feel like a slut, but she knew she wouldn't be doing anything else for a while. She had to concentrate on school and marching band for a little while. Her mind had to be set straight for another month until championships.


	13. Chapter 13

Tuesday's rehearsal came around quickly, and Zoe noticed that Steven could not keep his hands off of Meg. That is, every time he knew that Zoe was watching. Rehearsal seemed a little boring to Zoe that day, she didn't know why. Then again, it seemed as if no one was working at all, and she gave out plenty of pushups.

"If I see anyone talking today, they're getting pushups. I mean it," she said at the beginning of rehearsal. "I am not in the mood to deal with you guys all talking, I will not take it today. We weren't that wonderful on Saturday, which was our home show. We should've been almost perfect. We really need to work on our marching and our playing. Notes need to be perfected, steps need to be more toe-high, and spacing needs to be even. I'm sorry if I sound harsh, it's just that we have 6 more weeks until championships. That means 4 more competitions before it. Homecoming takes up one of the weeks, so we really need to work here."

By the time warm-down time came at the end of rehearsal, she had given at least every person in her section 20 or more pushups. As everyone started walking away, she stopped them.

"Wait a second, guys. I'm really sorry if I overdid y'all. It's not like me, I know. I promise I won't be as tough anymore as long as you guys promise to improve by next Tuesday rehearsal, okay?"

Everyone agreed and then she left them all leave.

She put her mellophone away with her friends and started out to her car. Her phone rang as she pushed her case into her back seat.

"Hello?" she answered it, not even looking to see who it was.

"Hey, what's going on? You haven't called me in days…"

"Oh, Iz? Is that you?"

"Yea, it's me. What's wrong?"

"Everything. I really have to talk to you. But I do have to go right now, rehearsal just ended and I just want to go home, take a shower, and go to bed."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow after school, alright?"

"Yea, that's fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

Zoe drove home blasting her music, singing along the whole way. She had no idea what was going on lately. She desperately needed some help.

She arrived home and went straight upstairs to her bathroom, took a nice long shower, and went to bed. She just needed to sleep on it, that was all, she hoped.

Zoe called Isabelle the minute she got home from school the next day, and broke into tears when she picked up.

"Belle, this is terrible. I feel terrible. I… uh! I just don't know…"

"Okay, Zoe, tell me what's wrong."

"I'm a slut."

"Wha? No you're not."

"Yes I am, I kissed 4 guys in the time period of a week, including making out with two shirtless guys. All I ever wanted was for a guy to like me, and now… It's terrible."

"Wait, who else have you kissed?"

"Jaxson."

Isabelle gasped. "You actually kissed him?"

"Yea…"

"Yea, I guess you are a slut…" Belle laughed.

"It's not funny! All I wanted was to have a boyfriend, and now I have 3 guys who like me all at one time!"

"Steven still likes you?"

"I think so. Every time he sees me looking at him when he's around Meg, he can't stop touching her."

"Ew, I just threw up in my mouth. She is disgusting! Who would ever want to date her? I mean, come on. Zo, I'm so glad you dumped him. He's so incredibly lucky to even SOCIALIZE with someone as attractive as you. I mean, really. Meg's an ugly whore, you know? God, I hope he knocks her up." Suddenly there was a thud on Zoe's line and Belle could hear Zoe laughing hysterically. "Zoe, what just happened?"

Zoe was still laughing hysterically. "I just… fell… off… my bed…" she said breathlessly.

Isabelle started laughing hysterically also. "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. I mean, I always imagined you falling off your bed, but I never thought it'd actually happen…"

The girls stayed on the phone for another hour or so, Zoe telling Isabelle about band, and of course, their favorite thing to do, discussing the Sabres. _It's nice to talk about something other than guys for once_, Zoe thought to herself. _They're starting to really annoy me_.


	14. Chapter 14

After band the next day, Mrs. Locke called Zoe into her office after band.

"Zoe, I noticed that you were giving your section many pushups at practice on Tuesday… Was there a reason for that?" she asked her.

"Well, Mrs. Locke, I felt that they can do better than what they've been doing. And, they seemed a little too talkative lately."

"How's life?" she randomly asked.

She looked surprised. For some strange reason, though, she felt that she could confide in Mrs. Locke about her problems. She had known her band director since she was little when her sister was in band at the high school, and she knew Mrs. Locke wasn't the kind of person to be telling others about problems. "Not that great."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked Zoe.

"I'd love to, but I really need to get to class."

"Of course. I'll write you a pass, and come down after school, okay?"

"Yea, I'd love to."

At the end of the day, Zoe walked down to the band room more slowly than usual. She was starting to rethink telling Mrs. Locke everything. _Is it really any of her business knowing what's going on in my life? Then again, I HAVE known her forever… maybe she'll understand what I'm going through, and perhaps even be able to help me. I'm sure she probably had guys fawning over her in high school. She's not skinny, has beautiful hair, how could a guy not want to date her? Hell, some of my guy friends want to date her now, she HAD to have the same guy troubles in high school. Haha. Too bad she's married._

She walked into her band directors' office to find Mrs. Locke on the phone. Mrs. Locke mouthed "I'll be right with you" to her, and she went out into the band room and got her folder out of her locker. Just as she was locking up her locker, Mrs. Locke called her into her office.

"Close the door behind you, sweetheart."

Zoe closed the door and sat down in a chair in front of Mrs. Locke's desk.

"So, what's up, hun? You seem really out of it lately. You're not playing as well as you usually do."

"I don't quite know. I guess I'm just having major guy problems and it's just distracting me, you know?"

"Ah, yes. Boys. Let me ask you something. If you had to chose between your music and men, what would you chose?"

"Uh…" Zoe said. "I think I would chose music."

"And why's that?"

"I don't know…" she said.

"I'll tell you why. It's because you know in your heart that although men may please you at times, you know that they can turn around and be total asses. Music, though, pleases you, but never takes it away. Music will always be there for you, whereas men won't."

Zoe laughed.

"No, really. Yes, men will give you joyrides in bed, they'll make you stand on your toes with their kisses, but they will turn around and hurt you in a way that music can't. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yea, but I think my problem's more complicated than that. I mean, yes, there IS a guy that turned around and hurt me, but I don't know…"

"Okay, tell me what exactly is going on."

"Well, it was my birthday quite recently, and one of my close guy friends bought me Sabres tickets and I was so happy. But at my party, another one of my friends told me he liked me and kissed me in such a sexy way, and he did the same when we hung out the next day. Then, I went to the game with the guy that got me the tickets and I kissed HIM there, and we decided to make it official. Then, the next day, I find out that he set me up for that kiss so that I'd think I liked him, so I refused to talk to him for ONE marching band rehearsal, and he goes and asks this other girl out while we're technically still together! So then, being all 'woe-is-me,' I hang out at one of my best friends' house, and I tell her that I've always had a crush on her next-door neighbor. Luckily for me, he was standing outside her house when I said that, and he told me the next day that he knew, and we ended up making out, and now, I'm here, confused as ever, trying to figure out what to do with my life." Zoe looked at Mrs. Locke to see if she had any reaction to this.

"Well, Steven is a wonderful musician, but I've overheard some of his conversations with his friends, and I really wouldn't trust him if I were you. He is very egotistical; he'll do anything to get what he wants."

"How'd you know one of them was Steven?"

"Well, I'm a Sabres fan, don't forget," Mrs. Locke smiled. "And as for Chris, I'd say don't trust him either. He's been known to lead some girls on."

"Wha… how'd you know it was him too?"

"Again, I overheard HIS conversations too. He kisses and tells."

"Oh…"

"Now, this third guy, I don't know who he is. Tell me what he's like."

"Well, he has gorgeous blonde hair, and he is such a sweetheart. He told me the other day that he loves talking to me in person because he just can't take his eyes off of me. And, after I kissed him, I found out that I was his first kiss. I had always thought that he had kissed his first girlfriend, but he said he never did."

"Well, he sounds like a nice kid, but again, I wouldn't trust him necessarily."

"Yea, I know what you mean."

"So, let's see. If you ignore Steven and Chris, then all you have left is this mystery man to worry about, so I'd say, have a crush on him. He can be your one crush as of the moment. Have him be the only guy you think about, but don't make him the only THING you think about. Championships are coming up in a month. You need to concentrate on your music and job as a Section Leader."

"Yea, I know."

"And, make this enjoyable for your section. Don't take out your confusion on them, okay? You want them to be happy! How about this practice, no pushups. Take a break, and apologize for last practice and just tell them you were having some 'family issues.' They'll understand."

"Okay, I think I can do that," Zoe smiled. "Thanks so much, Mrs. Locke!"

"No problem, sweetheart. I'll see you at rehearsal tonight."

"Yupp! Bye!" Zoe said, walking out of the office. _Wow. I never thought that talking to a band director could actually help you sort through things bothering so well._

On Zoe's drive home, she kept thinking about Mrs. Locke's comparison between guys and music. _She's right. Music is so much better than guys. How did I never realize that before?_


	15. Chapter 15

As always, Zoe arrived to practice 20 minutes early to talk to the directors and see what they were going to do, and to decide what to do with her section. As she sat in the band room making a list of some things she felt needed to be worked on, Steven came in, stopping the second he saw her sitting there.

"Oh, Zoe, hey…"

Zoe looked up, not even noticing he was there until he had said her name.

"Oh," she said, looking down again, "hey, Steven."

"I was actually hoping you'd be here," he said, doing his locker combination to get to his drumsticks in his locker. "I have to talk to you about something."

"Yea," Zoe said, still not particularly listening.

"It's really important," he said, closing his locker and putting his sticks in the pocket on his drum. "Let's go talk in the hall."

"Steven, I'm a little busy right now…"

"It'll be quick, I promise."

She looked up with an unpleasant face, but still put her paper and pencil on the chair next to her and stood up. She followed him into the small hallway off of the Music Wing, and dragged her into the doorway that spilt the bathrooms.

"Zoe, I just really want to say, I am so sorry about the past week."

"Took you long enough," Zoe snorted under her breath.

"What?" She hadn't realized it was loud enough for him to hear.

"I said…" she hesitated, "…it took you long enough to want to say that."

He looked at her. "Well, I'm sorry, I really am. I never meant to hurt you; I was just over my head. I had been trying for so long to tell you that I had feelings for you, but, I don't know. I just didn't know how. Then I had this idea to force you into a kiss at the Sabres game, and, I just really wanted to go through with it. I really didn't mean to hurt you at all."

"Well, seems like your plan didn't work out very well, now did it?" she turned to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist, then pushing her against the wall.

"I'm not done talking," he said, a touch of anger in his eyes.

"Well, I'm done listening. Now, let me go."

"No."

"What? You can't do this! LET ME GO!"

"No." He then forced his lips unto hers, but their kiss was ended shortly by a loud slap across his face. He looked at her as if she was crazy. "WHAT IS YOUR DEAL? I TRY TO MAKE UP WITH YOU, AND YOU SLAP ME ACROSS THE FACE!"

"Because you're an asswipe and a prude, and I don't like you anymore, Steven," Zoe bluntly said, pushing him out of her way.

"WHAT?"

"You heard me!" she screamed as she walked away and back into the Music Wing. She was so relieved to see Laura walking into the band room.

"Hey, what's up?" Laura said, putting her flute on the chair next to Zoe's stuff.

Zoe laughed. "Funny story; Steven just tried to make up with me and I slapped him across the face, literally."

Laura roared in laughter. "Wow, I never thought you could actually do that… I mean, I know you can talk back, but I never thought you'd actually hit someone…"

"Eh, hatred is a powerful object…" Zoe sat back down, writing a few more things down on her list, waiting for rehersal to start. As her friends piled in, Laura and Zoe went on to tell the story of how she had hit Steven and how foolish he was to think that she'd actually take him back after what he had done to her.

As Zoe was telling the story to Kristy, she noticed Laura being pulled away by Meg. She watched Laura's face as Meg told her something, saw a look of shock, and watched as Laura walked back to her friends while Meg stood back there looking as if Laura had just betrayed her, yelling after her "Wait, don't you have anything to say?"

"What's wrong with her?" Zoe asked as Laura came back.

"I'll tell you later," she replied.

Mrs. Locke suddenly came into the room, blowing her whistle loudly and screaming at the top of her lungs, "BAND TEN HUT!"

"AND HUT!"

"Okay, kids, time for rehearsal. Brass, on the field, set 1; woodwinds, block on the back lacrosse field; pit, set up on the field; drumline, perfect music in the grass foyer. The instructors are there – last one to your place gets 20 pushups and X amount of laps around whatever the assigned instructor pleases. Now, MOVE!" She blew her whistle again, and everyone scrambled to get their instruments and get to their spots as fast as possible. Zoe walked out to the field with Kristy, practically jogging so they wouldn't be the last ones there by any chance, and laughed as they were the first to their places, 8 steps apart. The mellophones, trumpets, sousas, trombones, and baritones all came quickly to their places, and everyone watched as a sophomore named Brutus did 20 pushups then went running around the entire field. As he returned to his place, Mr. Haw, a director almost everyone hated, called the brass to attention.

"We will rehearse the first song once through, have 20 minute sectionals, and then we'll be back on the field, rehearsing with the rest of the band." He turned to Will. "Will, start them off."

Will stared coldly at the brass. "Band ten HUT!"

"And HUT!"

He moved his hands; left-hand down, left-hand down, both down, in, out, up, downbeat.

Their step-off was perfect, the notes crisp in the early October air. Out of the corner of her eye, Zoe could see Meg struggling with the timpani, steering it somewhat out of control, more than usual. She quickly snapped her eyes back to Chris, making sure her spacing was correct, checking her other side where Alan was. She rose up on her toes, stepping backwards, suddenly switching to a left turn. She glanced at her other rookies still backing up, making sure they were doing it correctly, and then looked back up at Will to make sure she was still in beat.

As the high step at the end of the song came, she actually stopped playing, turning her head to check her rookies' stepping, making sure their knees were perfectly parallel with the ground. She quickly resumed her playing, and played the final notes of the song, snapping her horn down in unison with those around her.

"Okay, okay. Needs work. Sectionals," was all they got in return from that devil of a man Mr. Haw.

"Mellos, to that tree!" Zoe said, pointing at a tree nearby. As she walked over, Mr. Haw took her by surprise.

"Pominger, 10 pushups."

"Wha…?" she turned around, facing him. "Why?"

"I saw you turn your head during the high stepping, checking spacing. You know you're not supposed to do that. Now give me pushups."

"Mr. Haw, I'm afraid you were mistaken. I was checking my rookies."

"I'm sure you were," he said sarcastically. "Now, pushups."

"Mr. Haw…" Zoe began but was interrupted by Mrs. Locke coming over to check on them.

"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Haw?" she asked him.

"Miss Pominger here turned her head to check spacing, and now she is denying it and saying that she was checking her rookies."

"Is this true, Zoe?"

"What, that I supposedly turned to check my spacing, or that I'm supposedly denying it?"

"Both."

"Yes, I am denying it, because I truthfully was checking my rookies' high stepping, to make check if I possibly need to correct it a little. But I saw that I didn't need to do much, just tell them to practice it, and quickly returned to playing."

"And you, Mr. Haw, do not believe this?"

"No, I don't. She is lying."

"And why do you think this?"

"Because! She slipped, it's possible."

"No, I'm afraid not, Mr. Haw. Miss Pominger was picked out of purity, since she has NEVER turned her head to check spacing, as well as other reasons. She infact WAS checking her rookies, I know this for sure. Now, go ahead to your sectional, Zoe. And Mr. Haw, go around and check the other sectionals." With this, Mrs. Locke turned around and headed for where the drumline was rehearsing.

"You may have gotten away with it this time," Mr. Haw said, "but next time, you won't."

Zoe turned to face her section, all of whom had open mouths, looking at her. She laughed as she returned to them.

"What was that all about?" Alan asked, looking frightened.

"Oh, Mr. Haw's just an ass, you know that." They all laughed. "So, you guys, I really have to say something. I'm really sorry about last rehearsal. There were just some family problems taking over my head, and I really wasn't thinking, so this rehearsal, I promise, no pushups. And probably no pushups next one either. Unless you're terrible on Saturday." Everyone replied to her in a positive way, and she took out her list of things to work on. As they worked on the things listed, she could already tell that they had all gone home and worked on their music, thinking that she was going to be as tough as last time.

By the water break at 7:30, the band had seemed to produce so much sound and so many good results that the directors decided to give them a longer break than usual. As Zoe went in and grabbed her water bottle, Laura pulled her aside into a practice room and closed the door.

"Ok, I have to tell you what Meg told me."

Zoe took a sip of her water. "Yea?"

"Well, she said…" She hesitated. "Well…"

"Spit it out already!"

"She thinks she's pregnant."

"What?"

"I said, she thinks…"

"No, I heard what you said! But, oh my God… that means, it's Steven's child…?"

"No, it's with another guy. She slept with him a week before Steven."

"Oh… so, why did I have to know?"

"Well, I haven't told you who with yet."

"Oh? Do I know him?"

"Yea, Josh."

Zoe's eyes grew large. "EW! You mean, unibrow, body odor, short, icky Josh?"

Laura's eyes answered the question simply.

"That's disgusting. Who would EVER sleep with him?"

"Her, I guess…" Laura laughed. "But, no telling anyone, okay?"

"Fine with me."

They left the practice room, threw their things down by their cases, and made their way outside with the rest of their friends.

For the rest of the rehearsal, Zoe couldn't help but look at Meg every once in a while, imagining her stomach growing larger, and all the while, making an ugly baby like Josh. _God, I hope I never go through something like that… Mrs. Locke's so right. Music should come before guys, no matter what. I don't want my future being ruined with a child._

As the rehearsal came to an end though, Zoe started to wonder how it was possible for Meg to have had sex before she had. Was she really not as attractive as she was, or was it just that Meg was such a whore? She figured it was just that she was a whore, which Zoe never wanted to become. She found her phone in her purse as she packed up, noticing she had a voicemail on it. As she walked to her car, she listened to the message, which was Jaxson asking her if she wanted to hangout the next night. She called him back as she packed up her car, agreed, and drove home. She figured she would stay on the safe side with Jaxson for right now, keeping him as a friend. She knew she'd be able to do it, she was confident, especially after what she had found out today. One little slip, and her life could be ruined.


	16. Chapter 16

As she drove up Jaxson's driveway the next night, Zoe wondered what exactly he had in mind of doing that night while hanging out. She figured it was just simple friend talking and such, but her mind never lingered on one thought forever. She knew there were other possibilities, and being herself, she of course thought of those other things, wondering if Jaxson truly wanted to do such things.

She rang the doorbell and was greeted with a scampering of feet from inside the house. Jaxson flung open the door, stepped outside, and shut the door quickly behind him.

"Let's go," he said. "Anywhere; you drive; just get me away."

They quickly got into Zoe's car and she pulled out of the driveway and unto the road. They two sat in silence for a few moments.

"So, why exactly did we rush out of there?" she asked Jaxson, breaking the silence.

"I just needed to get out of the house. I couldn't stand it in there anymore with Charli constantly complaining, and Johnni and Carolina constantly fighting over their toys. I just needed an escape with a real person that isn't shallow or anything but perfect."

Zoe sat in silence for a little longer, taking in exactly what he had just said about her. He had called her perfect; he had complimented her. Suddenly, she took a sharp right down a dirt road that she and Lizzy would sometimes walk down not far down the street from Lizzy's house. She knew it led to a perfect little spot right on a creek that would be a perfect place to talk for a while. As she parked the car, Jaxson unbuckled his seat belt, but just sat there.

"Jaxson, what's the matter? Seriously…"

Jaxson hesitated. "Zoe, I don't know how to put this…"

"Put what? Just say what you want to say."

He looked at her.

She stared into his deep blue eyes, framed in the skinny black rims of his glasses.

Without another word, he reached up and ran his fingers ever so lightly along her cheek giving her goosebumps down her back. He pushed a small group of redhair back behind her ear and touched her chin with his fingertips, tilting it up to look at him.

"You're beautiful, Zoe. You truly are."

"Jaxson, no offense, but I really don't want you saying that."

"Why not? It's the truth."

She took his hand off her face. "Jaxson… I just want to be friends for right now… I really need to concentrate on my life."

Jaxson turned to look forward and sat in silence.

"I'm really sorry… I really do like you, it's just… it's my last year of marching band… I want to make it the best ever, without worrying about relationships or whatnots… You understand, don't you?"

Jaxson still gazed straight ahead.

"Let's go get some fresh air," she said, pushing her door open. He followed her to the edge of the creek and they sat there in silence for quite a few minutes. There were few enough trees that when they lied down, they were able to still see the stars in the sky. As they lay there, they could hear the crickets chirping around them.

It took a while for either of them to say anything. Jaxson was finally the one to break the silence.

"What about friends with benefits?" he asked.

He surprised her by talking. "What do you mean?"

"You said you want to be friends. What about friends with benefits. No emotions attached."

"I don't know, Jaxson. The problem is, emotions ALWAYS get attached."

"Not right away, though."

They sat in silence again.

"Well, maybe," Zoe finally said. She rolled over to her side to face him and wrapped her arm around his waist. "You know, you're not too bad with the kissing, I gotta say."

Jaxson laughed. "Why do you keep saying that?"

"Because. It's the truth."

He smiled at her again, and kissed her forehead. She then moved her head up and kissed him.

Again, they were under a blanket of stars, kissing each other sweetly, not knowing how to stop. Their lips meshed together, and they were happy just to be like that. Zoe never thought she could have a friend with benefits. She was always afraid her feelings would get in the way. Perhaps, though, she could make this work. After all, having a friend with benefits meant nothing; he was just a simple person that if she felt like making out, she could do so with him. Nothing would ruin that, they were perfectly safe.


	17. Chapter 17

The school bustled the next week in preparation for Homecoming. Spirit week was filled with laughter as people came dressed up in footy-pjs, and wore their hair in the craziest way possible. Finally that Friday, the school was filled with blue and green, their school colors. Zoe had to stay after that day to help decorate for the dance the next night, and was truly excited to do so. Their theme was Broadway, so she was able to go crazy with all the famous musicals as well as not-so-famous ones. She had plans to make the hallways look like an entrance to a grand theater in New York and the gym was going to fantastically decorated in green and blue streamers. The usual balloons needed to be netted at the ceiling for the release at the end of the dance, and Zoe was excited that as a senior, she was one of the people that got to do that.

As the little truck that held them up there lowered her, Zoe hopped off & lost her balance on her landing as she fell into someone she didn't see on her landing.

"Oh, I'm so sorry…" she said turning around. Her face went pale as she gazed into Steven's eyes.

"Quite alright," he said, but wouldn't let go of her arm.

"Steven, let go of me. What are you doing here?"

"I came to help, obviously."

"Well, we don't need your help. So, you can leave now."

"No, not until you say you'll come to the dance with my party. I'm getting a limo."

Zoe laughed. "Why the hell would I do that?"

"Because you still love me."

"I never loved you. I was with you for ONE DAY!"

"Yes, but you told me you had always had a thing for me."

"Yea, but that didn't mean I LOVED you…"

"Fine, you'd come because you want to be with me."

"I do not want to be with you! I'm having my own party anyway."

"Well, then your party can join mine."

"No. I have a yearly party, you know that. It's Senior Year. I HAVE to have this party. Plus, I don't want to take some stupid limo to homecoming. Limos are for prom, not homecoming."

"Fine, whatever. But you WILL save me a dance. Or else." He let go of her.

"Or else what? You can't do anything to me."

"Oh yes I can," and with that, he turned and left the gym.

Zoe was startled when Mr. Griswold tapped her on the shoulder.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

"Yea, fine…" she lied.

"Ok, well we're done decorating, so you can go home if you like. Thanks for the help, Zoe."

"Yea, no problem…" she said, slowing walking away.

As soon as she got in her car, Zoe drove home as quickly as possible without speeding and called Jaxson.

"Hey, Zoe. What's up?" he answered.

"Hey, would you mind coming over? I really need to talk to you…"

"Sure. I'll be over in a few."

Zoe swung the door open right before Jaxson rang the doorbell 3 minutes after they hung up.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you." They went up to her room and she told him about what had just happened with Steven.

"Don't worry, Zoe. I'll be there for you. If you need me to, I'll beat him up, I really will."

Zoe smiled. "Yea, I know you will." She laughed. "That's why I love having you around." He hugged her and she loved that feeling of his warm muscles wrapped around her somewhat thin, but not too skinny body. He kissed her forehead, and a tingle went through her body. She tilted her head up and gently kissed him on the lips.

"You'll be my date tomorrow, right?" he asked.

She smiled. "Of course." He placed his hand in the small her back and stroked her face with his other hands. He gently laid her back on the bed and kissed her lips ever so sweetly. He slowly moved his lips further away from the middle of her lips until he was to her cheeks, then kissed a trail all the way down to her neck. She wondered if he knew that made her shiver through her body or not. She could feel his stubble brushing against her shoulder as he kissed her neck, and she reached to his cheek and stroked it.

"I love when guys don't shave," she said, in somewhat of a dreamy voice. He raised his head and looked at her.

"Why do you think I didn't shave?" he laughed. She pulled his stubble-covered lips toward hers and stuck her tongue in deep, exploring his mouth. He tasted sweeter than Chris had when she had made out with him, and Steven, well he wasn't amazing tasting at all. She moved her hands to his waist and began to feel his 6-pack underneath his shirt. She giggled into his mouth as she felt the bumps of his abs. He laughed into her mouth as she reached down and ran her fingers through the tuft of hair below his belly button. He then pulled away to look at her.

"You're so beautiful, you know that, right?" he said as he took some strands of hair and tangled them in his fingers.

"I really wish you wouldn't say stuff like that… After all, we ARE only friends…" she said, wishing she hadn't the second it came out.

He took his fingers away from her hair and placed a fingertip on her lips, running it along them, giving her a tingling sensation. He then trailed the finger down to her chest where he dragged to down into her cleavage, then replaced it with his tongue. His warm mouth felt so nice on her skin, and she sucked in a quick breath. While still sucking on her skin, he reached down and began to slide the shirt up her belly. He stopped kissing her bare skin momentarily to slip her shirt up over her head, then reached for her straps. They slid down her arms easily, and soon her chest was fully bare. She unhooked the front latch of her bra to make it easier for him to function, and he began sucking at one hard nipple while teasing the other with his thumb and finger. She took a quick breath as he switched and moistened the other one.

He began to trail his lips down her breast, kissing the birthmark hidden on the underneath of it.

"I never knew you had this here," he said, looking up at her.

"I… usually don't tell people… about it…" she said in between breaths as he trailed down to her belly button, teasing it with his tongue, while unhooking the front of her jeans. She raised her hips, allowing him to slide them off, along with the cute hipster panties she was wearing. He then ran his kisses down to her inner thigh, lifting up her left leg to nuzzle his face against it. Her sweet smell of desire filled his nostrils, and he licked the juices starting to come from her vagina. He switched thighs, licking at her right one while playing with her clitoris with his index finger ever so lightly.

"I see… you've done… this… before…" she said, still with quick breaths.

"Actually… no…" he said between kisses. "You're… my… first…" He suddenly replaced his finger with his tongue and lapped at the sweetness she was creating in the heat of her body. He placed her legs on his shoulders, and she could feel him peeling her apart for a full tongue entrance. He slowly licked at the edges of her, and her aching increased rapidly.

"Jaxson…" was all she could get out before her cell phone rang.

"Ignore it," he said. "Nothing's more important than pleasing you."

She looked at the caller ID. "No, Jaxson, I have to. It's my…" He sucked her fully into his mouth. She could feel his tongue begin to search around just as it had before in her mouth. She cried out in pleasure.

"Jaxson… please… it's my mom…"

He pulled out his tongue, and looked up at her, his lips covered in her. She could hardly look away to grab her phone. In a shaky voice, she answered.

"H-hello?"

"Hi, honey, it's your mother."

"H-hi, M-mom… What's up?"

"Honey, what's the matter? You sound shaken up…"

"Oh… It-it's nothing. Y-you just w-woke me up…"

"Oh, well, sorry. Anyway, I'm going to be a little late. Would you mind putting the roast in at 5 o'clock?"

"Uh… Sure, Mom… But, I, uh, won't be home for dinner, remember? I have the Pep Rally…"

"Oh, yes, that's right. Well, make sure you get something healthy, ok?"

"Yep, Mom."

"Hi, Mrs. P!" Jaxson said in the background. Zoe shot him a "what-are-you-doing!?" look.

"Zoe, who's over?"

"Uh… Jaxson…"

"Oh, well, make sure he gets something good to eat, too, before you guys head over, ok?"

"Yea, I will, Mom. Talk to you later!"

"Love you, honey!" Zoe hung up.

"My mom told me to make sure you eat something good before we head over to the pep rally."

"Oh, I already did," he smiled. She laughed, realizing he still hadn't cleaned off his face. She got up on her knees, crawled over, and kissed him, still fully naked. She settled her lap upon his and licked at the liquid smeared across his face.

"Hm… I really DO taste good, don't I?" she smiled, then crawled off his lap to retrieve her clothes.

"You're not even going to let me finish?"

"Nah… maybe some other time… but we have to get ready to go in half an hour. But, I will say, whenever you do finish, I for sure need to pay you back." She slipped on her jeans and panties, fished around for her bra, and snapped it back into place. He pulled her hips back to sit on her bed and kissed her neck with light bites to it. She turned her head and kissed him with her rich full lips. She then slipped her shirt back on and stood up to walk out.

"Come on, what do you want to eat?"

"You."

"Well, other than me… Do you like turkey sandwiches?"

"Yea, I guess."

"Okay, then that's what we're having."

He followed her to the kitchen and sat at the island as she made the sandwiches.

"You're very nimble with your fingers," he said, watching her place the turkey on the bread ever so lightly.

"I hope you're not going to use corny pickup lines a lot…" she said, looking up at him. He laughed.

"I'll try not to." They finished their sandwiches in 10 minutes tops, and left for his house. He ran inside to get his I.D. and ticket. She watched his ass as he went in the house, remembering how firm it was the other night when she had grabbed it. He had the perfect body. Not too crazy fit, but nice enough to enjoy touching and feeling. He came back and sat down in the car, and looked at her.

"I love your body," she said.

He laughed. "Thanks…?"

"Anytime," she smiled. They drove to the school in silence. She parked the car, but didn't unlock the doors. "Jaxson, please don't tell anyone about what just happened."

"I won't, I promise." His smile killed her inside. She kissed him and unlocked the car.

"Thanks."


End file.
